


Stranded

by Gamebird



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Damerux, Enemies to Lovers, Gingerpilot, Happy Ending, M/M, Minor reylo mentioned in epilogue, Post-TLJ, Stranded, Surviving, huddle for warmth, monster fighting, not TROS-compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:48:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 37,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26650924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gamebird/pseuds/Gamebird
Summary: Poe and Hux end up stranded in the wilderness, having to struggle to survive the elements, creatures, and each other. When they're finally rescued, they face the hardest decision yet: go back to their respective lives, or continue together.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Armitage Hux
Comments: 89
Kudos: 117





	1. The Fall

**Author's Note:**

> This work is dedicated to those readers who say 'I love this scenario! I want to read another one just like it but different!' as it is either my fourth or fifth Gingerpilot story where they are stranded somewhere dangerous and have to work together to survive.
> 
> This work is complete at around 35k words. I will publish one chapter every day or so until done.

Poe Dameron had been captured by his most hated enemy in the First Order: General Armitage Hux. Their enmity had been personal since their exchange over D'Qar, where Poe had played on the general's naiveté and mocked his appearance in order to get an advantage in the ongoing war. It's not like they'd been on good terms before that, either, with Poe having been instrumental in thwarting many First Order plans, assisting in the defection of at least one stormtrooper, and leading the attack that destroyed Starkiller Base.

All that to say, Poe had good reason not to want to be in General Hux's clutches, but it had come to pass anyway. After his crippled x-wing was tractor beamed aboard the star destroyer, he was pulled out and marched to the interrogation wing of the brig. He'd been there before, on this particular ship in fact, the memories of which event which still troubled him some nights. He was not pleased to refresh his recollection of the place.

He was searched, stripped, and allowed to put back on the body sleeve that went under his flight suit. They gave his necklace a short inspection and returned it to him. He was then goaded into allowing himself to be strapped to an interrogation table. He wasn't fond of the table - not in the least. Most of his nightmares featured it.

"Hey, uh," he tried, "don't suppose you guys would let me know what the agenda is, would you?" They didn't answer, but speaking was calming him. He warmed to the subject. "I promise I'll play my part better if I know what it is."

"You're a filthy rebel!" said one of the stormtroopers.

"I can shower, if that bothers you. Or are you saying that's my role? Being a filthy rebel? Because I can do that. I was born for that role!"

The door slid open. The trooper had raised his arm to backhand him, but the other grabbed it and pulled him off-balance. The first trooper said something he cut off as soon as he uttered it and they both went at attention as he caught sight of the door.

The general stepped into the room. Poe's mouth went dry. His lips twitched in a grimace he otherwise suppressed. He moved his hands restlessly within the fetters, balling his fists and then releasing them.

Despite their many close brushes, General Hux was heretofore known only to him from grainy holos and written reports. He was orange-haired, white-skinned, tall and thin. His face was angular, but it was impossible to call him ugly. His features were too regular for that, his skin too smooth, his bearing too self-confident. He was young, too, which was to his advantage. It seemed a shame to Poe that the Force had wasted such a fine appearance on such a depraved person.

"Commander Poe Dameron. I'm surprised you haven't made general yet." He strolled in front of where Poe was inclined on the table.

"What do you want?"

Hux glanced over his shoulder. "Do you intend to give it to me?"

It sounded like a line out of a porno, so Poe answered it with one of his own, in a sultry tone. "Depends on what it is."

"Tell me about the current disposition of the Resistance's ships."

So much for sultry. "No."

"The status of your communications with the rebel unionists on Kuat?"

"Go fuck yourself."

"So vulgar." Hux looked him up and down, letting his gaze linger. Poe tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. What was this guy playing at? Hux said, "Well, as it happens, I don't expect to get information out of you. You resisted our interrogation before. You'll resist it again." He examined a control panel, fiddling with the settings.

Poe felt cold. He knew what that panel controlled. "Then what am I in here for?"

Hux turned to him. "As I said, you'll resist it again." He pressed a button and electricity jolted through Poe, burning his hands and the soles of his feet, tingling and snapping along his skin. It wasn't really electricity – whatever they used for torture – but that was the closest thing it felt like, causing every neuron it coursed through to report back to his brain that he was being fried. It kept going until he made an inarticulate scream from the pain, whereupon it ended abruptly as Hux released the button.

Poe sagged forward, gasping and twitching. When he was able to speak, he lifted his head as much as he could to ask, "What's the point, if you know you're not going to get information?"

Hux lifted Poe's chin, cradling it in a gloved hand to bring his head up the rest of the way. "The pain _is_ the point. You'll die here. And you'll die screaming, which is fitting given the number of our people you've sent to their deaths." He pulled his hand away and Poe's head bobbed until he found the strength to lean back, letting it loll against the headboard.

"You're just going to kill me? No, you're going to torture me to _death_? For no point? Just because?"

"Just because, Commander Dameron. Just because." He walked over to the control panel again and waited with his finger poised theatrically over the button. He looked at Poe and smiled wickedly.

"Just push it, you bastard," Poe growled.

Hux obliged him, ending the suspense. An agonizing eternity later, it stopped. Again, Poe sagged in his restraints. He heard Hux tell him, "You're free to divulge any information you like, by the way. If the intel is good enough, we might be willing to make concessions, making the whole process faster or slower as you request. Rest breaks, perhaps? I don't know, but I'm sure we can be bribed into _something_ if whatever you offer is of value."

"All I want is you out of here." His voice was breathy and hoarse already.

"That much, you will get. I have more important concerns than watching you die." Hux turned back to the troopers. "Summon the interrogators. Let them practice on him in whatever method they choose. Keep him conscious as long as possible. But if he's still alive tomorrow, you'll need something to show for it."

The general left. The guards stayed in the room while they waited for the interrogators to show up. Poe asked them, "So, how am I doing? Be honest. I take my work seriously."

"Doing?" one of them said falteringly. "You're about to die."

The other said, "Don't talk to him. It's against regs, anyway."

"No," Poe said, "I mean in my role as a filthy rebel. Am I making the right impression here? Does it seem believable?"

The first guard wobbled his head in what Poe supposed was a helmeted manifestation of an incredulous eye-roll. "Are there any regs against me roughing him up a little? They're going to kill him anyway."

"I didn't see nothin'," said the other in an affected Outer Rim accent.

The first guard advanced on Poe, putting one fist in the palm of his opposite hand and cracking his knuckles. But before anything happened, the entire ship experienced a subtle vibration that quickly escalated to an unsettling shiver and then a wrenching shudder. There were noises in the ship – noises Poe was pretty sure no ship should make. "What was that?" he asked.

The guards swayed on their feet as the artificial gravity wavered. There was a moment of complete silence, the sort of silence that only happens when most of the systems on the ship were off-line. "That isn't good," the other guard said. The next second, alarms began to blare. The command to go to battle stations was sounded.

"What do we do with him?" the guard closer to him asked the other.

"Regs say we put him in his cell."

"He doesn't have a cell. Do we just kill him?"

"No!" The other guard sounded scandalized. "Unhook him. We'll find a cell. It's not up to _us_ when he dies."

Poe didn't complain. Nor did he hesitate. As soon as his restraints were released, he lunged for the trooper's blaster. It was a short struggle, ending with both troopers dead. He heard sounds he identified as distant turbo laser impacts. His squadron had come to rescue him. He grinned.

He started for the door, then felt that bad vibration again. This time the oscillation at the end was severe enough to knock him painfully to his knees. Before he got up, an announcement was made to abandon ship. It was the general's voice.

Whatever was happening was serious and beyond what he believed any squadron of x-wings could bring to bear this quickly. On the other hand, he'd been investigating this ship precisely because it had dropped out of hyperspace without any indication of why. The situation certainly simplified him getting out of the brig.

After the security forces filtered out, he followed. He made it to a main corridor without being challenged. This was where he paused, considering his choices. He could find the nearest hangar and attempt escape that way, linking up with his people, or he could try to do something useful while he was still here. Or, well, maybe not 'useful' but definitely something he was motivated to do. He headed for the bridge.

As it turned out, the body sleeve from under his flight suit looked enough like First Order sleepwear that no one looked twice at him, even though he was disheveled and carrying a blaster. After all, the call to battle stations and then swiftly after to abandon ship had caught everyone on the off-shift abed. Now the corridors were full of them, hustling along their designated escape routes and minding their own business. He remained unchallenged as he neared the bridge.

At the far end of a long corridor, he watched as officers and technicians hurried through the hatches of pods, just as another series of shakes wracked the ship. There was enough panic in voices that Poe knew this was serious. At the other end, General Hux was yelling at people to launch immediately. Poe started forward, but the violent shaking threw him to the floor and the gravity cut out.

Everything felt still after that, but he suspected the structure of the ship was still resonating. Emergency lights came on and Poe realized he was about to be stranded here. He doubted he could retrace his steps, find a hangar, and signal his rescuers before another, possibly final, death throe consumed the ship.

He had another choice – leap into the nearest open pod with whoever else was already in it, or push off and hope he could get to Hux's before he took off. Poe had never been one for playing it safe. His friends could retrieve him later from the escape pod. He could signal them from there.

By the time he got to the hatch Hux had gone through, it was shut and the corridor was empty. He slammed the button on the side, hoping like hell he'd reached it before the pod had launched, especially given Hux's direction. The door sprang back open. Poe yanked himself inside and the door shut behind him.

Hux was the only other in it and was seated at the controls, absorbed with them. They launched and its own gravity kicked in. Poe had been expecting that, but he still landed hard. The blaster clattered on the floor. He snatched it up. Hux glanced back at the noise. He had to have known someone else joined him, but the sound of the weapon had caught his attention. He stood, drawing his pistol.

Poe had intended to say a few choice things before killing the guy. But, well. Hux was moving and Poe was out of time. He pulled the trigger instead. He missed. The shot burned into the control panel behind Hux and then Poe was dodging Hux's shot in turn. He fired again, but Hux was taking cover behind the chair and even if it wouldn't block a blaster bolt, Poe had instinctively fired at the part of Hux he could see. The shot harmlessly scorched Hux's shoulder and hit the control panel again, sending up sparks.

The pod jolted as something impacted it hard. Hux did not fire back immediately and in that fraction of a second, the pod was bathed in a blinding white light that left Poe dazzled even though he wasn't in the direct exposure to it. Hux was. Blinking away the spots in his eyes, Poe moved to the side so he had a clear line of fire. He could see Hux. Hux clearly wasn't seeing him. He was wiping at his eyes, blinking furiously, and staring in the direction where Poe had been and not at where he stood now.

Maybe he'd get to say stuff to him after all. Hux as a prisoner was even better than dead Hux. Poe switched the blaster over to stun and pulled the trigger just as Hux turned toward him, having heard the click. It was too late.

Poe didn't get time to savor his victory. Something else slammed into the pod, followed by a rain of smaller objects. This was not good. Poe shoved Hux's body away from the pilot's chair and slid into the seat. Off to his right where the bulk of the star destroyer should have been was an expanding inferno of debris. He steered the pod directly away, wondering what the hell had happened to make the _Finalizer_ explode like that. Obviously the main reactors had gone up, but …?

His first priority was getting out of there. He veered downward, letting the planet's gravity accelerate him away from the debris. The little ship was not doing well, with warning lights on all over and problems cascading so fast he wasn't sure what was causing them. They hit the turbulence of the atmosphere and Poe reached for the controls to bounce them upward and back into space.

They weren't there. They literally weren't, having been blasted off the array during his short-lived shoot-out with Hux. "Oh no," he said, scrabbling at the still-hot, melted nub of one of the levers and trying to wrench it into the position he wanted. The ship wavered, then began a spiraling tumble as Poe fought to wrench the nub back to the position it had started in. The last thing he wanted was some death spiral that pinned him to the wall with centrifugal force as the pod shot toward the planet's surface like a bullet from a rifle.

He struggled with the ship through the entire atmospheric entry. There was no way to regain the safety of space. He had serious doubts as to whether the landing would be survivable. It went on long enough that Hux regained consciousness, a fact that Poe realized when the muzzle of the man's pistol touched his cheek.

"You shoot me," Poe said as evenly as he could over the roar of turbulent atmosphere outside, "and there's no way you'll get control of this thing before it slams into the surface and kills you."

"But you'll be dead with me."

Still, Hux hadn't pulled the trigger so that was something. They broke from cloud cover, showing the ground coming up frighteningly fast. Poe had flown since he was six. He'd crashed many times. He knew this one was going to be bad. Thankfully, he'd already strapped in. Hux was standing. Poe told him, "Let me land this thing and you can shoot me and live." He doubted Hux would be in any shape to do it, but he didn't mention that part.

Hux hesitated. He hesitated too long. They hit the surface of the planet and not nearly as obliquely as they should have. Poe wasn't sure of the details, but he was pretty sure they actually bounced a few times. He remembered seeing them careening through trees and then it was black as he passed out, probably in the final, sudden jolt that stopped their forward progress.

He woke with a yelp when water started filling his boots. "What?" He straightened from where he'd been sagging in the seat restraints. The viewports were murky and dark. Muddy water was filling the pod. They were canted sharply downward. The consoles were also dark, but emergency lighting around the rear hatch illuminated the pod in a red haze.

He unstrapped and carefully got up, nursing bruises from the straps. Hux was sprawled across the floor in front of the exit. Poe knelt next to him, trying to figure out why he hadn't slid down the floor and into the water. It seemed Hux's belt buckle had jammed into the recessed groove of a floor hatch. Poe chuckled at the absurdity of it. Hux was still breathing, he noted. He was bleeding from some head wound, but he was definitely alive.

Poe was torn. He could shoot him and make sure he was dead, but he didn't want to shoot an unarmed, unconscious man. Or he could leave him here to drown, which was even less moral. It was no better than Hux's order that Poe be tortured to death. Or he could save him. He'd already considered that when he switched to stun. But now, not only would he potentially have Hux as a prisoner, but he could claim he'd actively saved his life.

It was a thought – the moral superiority of being Hux's savior. Poe stood and toggled the rear hatch to open. Nothing happened. No lights on the door controls, either. He tried to bring up results from the sensors as to whether the atmosphere on the other side was dangerous, but no beeps when he pressed buttons – just the faint mechanical click of the spring behind the button. He huffed and opened the panel for the manual release. It was a simple lever on an escape pod, impossible to fail. Or so he thought. It was uncharacteristically stiff, like the frame of the pod had been warped.

Poe grimaced and put some muscle into it, hearing a creak and finally a pop followed by the hatch shifting upward. It wasn't as helpful as he'd hoped. There was most of a meter of water against the lower part of the hatch and when he opened the door, it all poured inside and over Hux's unconscious body. Still, it was open.

Hux sputtered, barely regaining awareness. Poe wrenched him up, getting his belt buckle loose, and then hefting him over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. Hux moved disjointedly, not exactly objecting. More like he didn't know what was going on. Poe stepped off the back of the pod, dropping into water that came up to his chin. It was cold, especially deeper down. Hux flailed again, gripping at him and struggling, probably trying to keep his own head above water.

Poe slipped, went under briefly, and managed to regain his feet and access to air. "Stop it! You'll throw me off balance! I'm trying to save your life here!"

"I- I- I dropped it!"

"What?" Poe oriented toward shore and slogged forward. Hux was still on his shoulders and holding him tightly with both hands now. The water level dropped to his shoulders. They were surrounded by trees and the cool air smelled fetid and dank. They seemed to be in a swamp.

"The blaster."

"Who cares? Forget it." Poe moved to where he was only waist-deep, then paused to look back at a sound from the pod. Now filled with water, it sank below the surface of the water with a rush of bubbles and billowing muddy eddies in the water. "You'd have been in there if I hadn't pulled you out."

"I … I would have woke up."

"And drowned." Poe turned around and continued to the shore. The muck he was trudging through was treacherous and cloying, sticking to his boots, but he made it without falling. He deposited Hux on the ground. They were both soaked through, hair plastered to their faces. Poe put his hands on his hips with the intention of striking a triumphant pose. Something was wrong. He looked down where his hand was fumbling to rest on where the butt of his blaster should have been. There was none. Nor a gun belt, which the guards had taken. The blaster rifle he'd swiped was … somewhere on the sunken pod. On the other hand, Hux wasn't armed either.

"Why did you save me?" Hux asked. He was still lying on the ground, in the mud, where Poe had dropped him. New blood was starting to stain the side of his face.

"Because I didn't want to let you die."

"That's not an answer." Hux coughed and put his hand to the spot on his head, pulling the hand back to study it. With the black gloves on, the blood wasn't easy to see.

"You're bleeding," Poe told him off-handedly. More to the point, he said, "I wanted you to owe me your life. I claim a life debt against you."

"What?!" All interest in the head wound was gone.

"You heard me. You owe me now."

Hux got unsteadily to his feet. "I ordered you killed! Terminated!"

"Exactly. Now you have to live, knowing it's because of me, and _owing_ me." Poe pointed to the middle of his chest in emphasis. This was good. Hux's outrage made it worth it.

Hux sneered, "The First Order doesn't even recognize life debts!"

"You're not the First Order," Poe said. "You're Armitage Hux." Now the key question was: did _Hux_ have a sense of honor? He wasn't surprised that the organization preached loyalty to their hierarchy and their hierarchy alone. But when you got someone alone – that was when you saw their true character as an individual.

Fuming, Hux stomped out into the water, heading toward the last place they'd seen the pod.

"Where are you going?" Poe called after him.

"I'm going to get my blaster and shoot you!" He said something else Poe couldn't hear well, but it sounded a lot like 'I'll show you a life debt.'


	2. Debts and Cold Credit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A cold, miserable night passes.

Poe laughed, but he moved out into the water after him just in case. Hux might be dishonorable enough to carry through. "You can barely walk straight." The man was clearly concussed.

Hux was taller than him so he found the pod before he went under water. Poe supposed Hux stood on some part of it, because he rose halfway out of the water and seemed to be feeling his way around. Poe was starting to worry about the whole blaster thing when bubbles rose up around the pod's resting place and Hux lost his balance. Underwater, the pod shifted position and slid downslope into deeper water.

Hux was pitched from it and then sucked down in the resulting turbulence. He didn't even manage a cry. Poe sighed and hurried forward. He had to dive into the cold, muddy, disturbed water and reach around until he found a human limb. He grabbed it and kicked off upward, dragging Hux with him.

They broke the surface, both of them gasping. Hux shoved away from him which Poe was fine with. It was better than being dragged down by a desperately flailing general. In a few strokes, he could touch the bottom again. Silently, they slogged back to shore and sat down, dripping.

"I don't owe you anything," Hux finally said.

Poe smiled. "You wouldn't be objecting if you didn't think it mattered."

"It _doesn't_ matter."

"Twice," Poe said smugly. "I saved your life twice."

"I didn't ask for it either time! And I could have swam out of that!"

"That's not how life debts work and you know it."

"If you want to be pedantic about it, then twice doesn't make any difference. Once you have the debt, anything further you do is just protecting your asset."

Poe blinked at him. "That's … not the wording I'm familiar with for life debts, but yeah. And," he ended on another smile and a smug tilt of his head, "you're admitting it?"

"I'm admitting nothing. I should kill myself and save myself the dishonor."

"Then you're admitting it." Poe nodded to himself.

"I said …" Hux shook his head and put his hand to the spot that was again seeping blood. "Nothing!"

"Let me take a look at that head injury." This was funny. Poe leaned over, looking at the knot on Hux's forehead. "I might need to protect my asset here and make sure you don't drop over dead."

"Get away from me!" Hux got to his feet, squelching and dripping. "We're both _filthy_ and _wet_."

Poe leaned back, propped up with his arms behind him. "So this is what those guards meant. Huh."

"What?"

"The stormtroopers who were guarding me in the interrogation cell. They said I was filthy."

Hux regarded him coolly. He seemed to be calming down. "Well … you are. Morally. Reprehensible. But now you're filthy physically as well. Fitting." His lip curled.

Poe looked around at the mud and brackish water. "Can't argue that."

"This is disgusting. We need not wait right here for rescue. Close by will do. Let's move to higher ground."

Poe shrugged. He stood and followed, squelching along in Hux's wake as he led the way to the left, only to discover the swamp became even more swampy in that direction. Some stalk-eyed amphibian the size of a mouse droid floundered off into the water. Smaller things leapt more nimbly out of their way - Poe never even got a good look at what they were. Hux about-faced without comment and headed the other way, passing the spot where they'd come ashore and moving on to the right of it.

Poe stopped. "Uh, hang on. We should mark this place."

"When the shuttle comes-"

"What shuttle?" Poe pulled a couple damp, half-rotten logs over to make an X on the ground.

Hux was silent. He looked up pensively, though the tree cover obscured most of the sky. Beyond that was grey clouds.

"The destroyer blew up," Poe said. "There was a huge debris cloud. We would have looked like any other falling piece of junk. We weren't even in controlled flight most of the time, so if anyone _was_ watching, they wouldn't have ID'd us as something that needed retrieval."

Hux looked at him now, still silent and sober. He looked back up at the sky.

" _What happened?_ " Poe asked with emphasis. He picked up a couple dead branches and made a vertical X, something easier to see from a distance because he had a feeling they might need it. When Hux didn't answer, he continued, "What was that vibration? I thought I heard blast impacts like the hull was being hit. Why weren't the shields up? Did the Resistance use some secret weapon on you?"

That seemed to snap Hux out of it. "A secret weapon? Wouldn't _you_ know more about that than I would?"

"Yeah, I should," Poe said. "But I don't know of any. What happened?"

Hux breathed out heavily. "We were … there was a problem with the hyperdrive reactor. We fell out of hyperspace, but we had enough control to choose a star system to do it in rather than empty space. So here we are."

"No, we're down here on the surface of a planet, standing in the middle of a swamp. You're skipping a few steps. Why did the ship blow up?"

"We had most of our systems off-line trying to isolate the problem. The system kept surging. We might have left hyperspace, but the drive was still running and we couldn't shut it off. When your allies attacked, we activated more systems and it would seem to have started a vicious cycle of increasing destabilization."

Hux paused to exhale heavily again. "When it was clear that even a complete shutdown wasn't going to slow it and projections were the situation would be incompatible with ship integrity within minutes, I ordered us to abandon ship."

"'Incompatible with ship integrity'," Poe mused. "I guess that's one way to say it. What caused it, though?"

"I have no idea. We were examining the problem when you showed up in your x-wing. We were scanning our hyperspace exit point for clues and you arrived in the same location. Did you have any abnormalities with your flight?"

"No wonder you guys were on top of me right away. And no, nothing weird. No, wait, there was some turbulence. But I just assumed it was something wrong with my stabilizers. And then you guys were on me, tractor beam and turbo lasers and everything, so I didn't have a chance to check anything. You guys didn't stop here in this system for any real reason then?"

Hux scoffed. "I didn't have much time to make the decision. I'd hoped there would be some civilization here that … might assist with repairs."

"You mean, that you could have strong armed into helping you?"

Hux shrugged it off. "If you also experienced irregularities, then it may be that we struck something in hyperspace."

"Things exist in hyperspace?"

Hux looked at him like he was stupid. "You've been in hyperspace. You existed there."

"Well, yeah, but … like, do you mean you think you hit another ship?"

"I don't know. It's more likely it was some other sort of anomaly."

"Wouldn't there have been … hull damage?"

"The ship doesn't exist in the same phase of reality in hyperspace. That's why it's hyperspace." Poe had no answer for that, so Hux asked, "How did your allies know to find you here?"

"Once I knew I couldn't get away, I sent a signal."

"We were jamming you."

"Yeah, and I was tracking you guys through hyperspace. We've adopted a lot of cool tech recently."

Hux frowned at him. Poe shrugged. His ship had been outfitted with a bunch of new gadgets for espionage. Following a capital ship like the _Finalizer_ had seemed like a pretty safe and easy test drive of the equipment, but then the ship in question had unexpectedly ditched in an empty system in the middle of nowhere and started vigilantly scanning the exact point Poe had emerged into. It was like they'd known he was there … but apparently they were just lucky.

"Is there anyone who lives here?" Poe asked. He finished with his marking exercise and followed Hux to the right. "On this planet?"

"No. We scanned it. No settlements. No habitation."

"Well, you couldn't have had time to do a _thorough_ scan," Poe said reasonably. "Natives look just like wildlife if their technology is sufficiently different from ours."

Hux gave a head wobble that was just like what the stormtrooper had done.

Poe asked, "Did you just roll your eyes?" He was walking behind him and hadn't seen.

"What? Yes."

"Ha. Okay. Thought so."

"Just imagine that I am constantly rolling my eyes at you."

"That's easy. What's that up there?" Poe pointed at a mound of dirt and shrub, about as tall as they were and a few meters across.

"That's not the high ground I was hoping for," Hux said, "but it should at least be dry."

"Um … who do you think is going to rescue us?"

"The escape pod has a homing beacon."

"That's not answering the question."

Hux sat down on the top of the mound. Poe frowned at what was obviously a burrow about halfway up it, for something that was maybe as big around as his head. Or that stalk-eyed amphibian. Were they burrowing creatures? Since nothing emerged, he climbed to the top and sat down as well. The tops of the trees turned pink and gold as the setting sun found enough open sky to project a little light their way before sinking under the horizon. He was still very wet and already uncomfortably cold.

"Also," Poe added pessimistically, "that homing beacon could have been damaged in the shooting, the crash, or being dunked underwater."

"Underwater wouldn't damage it. It's designed to operate in the depths of space and all manner of hostile atmospheric or submerged conditions. Aside from lava, acid, or caustic solutions, it will be fine."

"Uh-huh," Poe said dubiously. "I'll play along – I shot the atmospheric maneuvering controls. Normally, the homing beacon is nowhere near that. It's usually under the pilot's seat, center of mass. So assuming the escape pods of the First Order follow standard ship-building design, then that's not the problem. But that leaves the possibility of being damaged in the crash. And everything, _everything_ , was dead when I woke up. Nothing on but the overhead emergency lights, which have their own batteries. I even had to open the hatch manually. If auxiliary power of any kind was working, something else would have been working."

Crabbily, Hux said, "You know perfectly well a homing beacon has a self-contained power system just like the emergency lights. It is the single most likely piece of equipment on that pod to still be functioning! Why do you insist it's not? Did you sabotage it?"

"No, I didn't sabotage it. What I'm trying to get through to you is that no one's coming to save us. Not in the next little while. And acting like they're going to by spending our time waiting for pickup out here next to the pod is going to get us killed. We've lost what little daylight we had already." Darkness was falling quickly under the cloud cover and tree canopy. He shivered a little.

Hux sighed. "What are our other options?"

"Uh …" Poe blinked, his mind struggling to change tracks. For all his vehemence on the subject, he hadn't expected Hux to agree.

"Do you have a communicator?" Hux asked. Poe shook his head. "Do you have _anything_?"

Poe grimaced and gestured at himself – two-part body sleeve and combat boots, which he started taking off so he could make sure they didn't have water in them. "What you see is what you get." He looked over Hux – general's uniform, empty holster. No belt pouches or other indications that he was carrying a comm hidden somewhere. And surely if he had, he'd have mentioned it by now.

Hux said, "Without any technology on us to differentiate _us_ from wildlife, if there is rescue, then the only way they'll find us is if we're close to the crash site."

Okay, maybe Hux had not agreed. " _If_ there is rescue, which I strongly doubt, then it should show up soon. A few hours, tops." Poe looked around at the gloomy forest. They'd already lost sight of all but the closest trees. "We should be able to see their running lights when they come. They won't be sneaking."

"Tell me about the group you sent a signal to."

Poe snorted. "You think I'm going to tell you about the disposition of Resistance forces, _now_?"

"Fine. But if the Order rescues us, I'll make sure they carry out my last orders concerning you."

"That's really not helpful," Poe said. "You might end up having to rely on me to survive."

"Why do you think you're not dead already?"

"I think I'm not dead because you have a sense of honor even if you won't admit it, and I saved your life." It was completely dark now, but he could see Hux draw up his knees to his chest. Flexible bastard. Hux didn't speak and the minutes dragged on. Poe wrung out his socks and then put them back on. He did the same with his shirt and finally, with his pants. Animals hooted in the distance and some in the not-too-distant distance. Insects and other arthropods sung the songs of their people, chirping and buzzing and making creepy, creaking noises. Tiny creatures crawled on him and from the occasional scratching or swatting, he gathered they did so on Hux as well.

What they did not hear was the sound of ship engines. There was a loud, but very distant boom that reverberated like thunder. It sounded like an impact, possibly of some large, semi-intact piece of the star destroyer. It might have been thousands of clicks away and the best he could give for direction was 'that way'. Hux sighed. "The final rest of the _Finalizer_. She was a good ship."

"You think everyone managed to get out?"

"I hope so. We were far from full complement, which helps."

"How long does the First Order usually take to respond to distress calls?"

"They'd send ships within a few hours. It would take more hours for them to get here. And then they will prioritize rescue of those in space. Realistically … it will be tomorrow before anyone is likely to check a stray homing beacon on the planet's surface." Hux went back to hunkering in on himself.

Poe didn't blame him. The wet clothes weren't helping. Neither was the fitful, damp breeze under the trees – just enough to chill them but not enough to dry their clothes. Hux hadn't even tried to wring his out. The air was so humid that a miasma of fog shrouded the ground despite the breeze. The fog lapped at the top of the mound they sat on. Things rustled under its cover, although given the dark, they couldn't see much anyway. Here and there, something phosphorescent and tiny bobbed along the top of the fog like drifting sparks from a fire.

Poe shifted, but every movement brought his already cold skin in contact with a colder bit of wet clothing. The shivering was getting worse. "It's, uh, pretty cold out here," he said, breaking a silence that felt like it gone on for more than an hour.

Hux made a noise in reply. A few moments later, Hux said, stuttering as he did, "I don't know how I have hypothermia. It's well above freezing."

"You can get hypothermia at room temperature under the right conditions." It might be well above freezing, but it was also well below normal room temperature.

Hux made a grumbling noise.

Poe said, "You're in wet clothes and more layers than I'm in."

"That should mean I'm insulated more than you are." Hux was struggling to speak. His tone, which might have been intended as snappish just came out as whiny.

"No, it means your body can't dry you out. Of course, with it as humid as it is here, I doubt you could dry out properly anyway. You should take that stuff off and wring it out at least."

"I am not undressing!"

"Fine."

"Regulations. It's still hours before dawn. Perhaps I should move." Hux stood up, arms hugging himself. He stamped his legs and stumbled, regaining his balance with difficulty.

Poe couldn't see more than an outline of him. "You know … we could … huddle for warmth."

"Don't be ridiculous."

Poe chuckled and held his arms tighter across himself. "I'm cold, too." But his voice was steady, whereas Hux's was stuttering and almost slurred at points. He had enough survival training to know this wasn't good.

"I should move," Hux repeated and tried to move off the mound. He stumbled, fell, and rolled ignominiously to the bottom. It would have been funny if it hadn't indicated he was really was seriously impaired by the chill.

Poe stood and carefully moved down the slope as Hux got to his feet with difficulty. It was not impossible that Hux might succumb to the combination of head injury, plus being slammed around in the rough landing, plus possibly inhaling water, plus hypothermia. Poe put a hand on his left forearm and spoke clearly, "Hux? General Hux?"

"Yes?"

"Come with me. Back up the mound." Hux didn't argue. Once they were back on the driest ground they had available, Poe said, "Sit down. I'll sit behind you and hug you."

"No!"

"Listen, we need to get some body contact going or you're going to die. Which might be an exaggeration, but I don't know. Maybe you should get out of some of these clothes."

"No! Get your hands off me!" Hux batted him away.

Poe grimaced. He was painfully cold and Hux had to be worse. The man seemed confused, which was, Poe knew, a classic symptom of hypothermia. "Do you want to sit facing each other?"

"No …"

"Okay, that's good because I'm not sure the geometry would work on that either unless we were standing or lying on the ground, and I'm trying to minimize our contact with the ground."

"I could … You could be in front."

"Uh, okay. Sure." Poe sat and looked up. It seemed to take Hux a moment to decide what to do, but then he sat behind Poe. A few moments later, he moved up next to him.

Hux pressed Poe's half-dried body sleeve flush to his body, chilling Poe everywhere he did. And yes, Hux's thicker, multiple layers were still wet. Poe shuddered. He was thinking about calling this off as a bad idea just to save himself when Hux made a relieved shiver and said, "You're so warm." Hux wrapped his arms hesitantly around Poe's body, bringing cold with him with every gesture.

"You better thank me for this tomorrow," Poe grumbled. Hux didn't answer. He just tucked his chin over Poe's shoulder, his cheek icy against Poe's ear.


	3. Fire and Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They make some tentative, careful motions toward working together.

They did not sleep that night, but Poe suspected they both dozed at different points. He was pretty sure something went in and out of the burrow near them. He heard it snuffling around, possibly within a meter of them. But he never felt it touch him and he didn't want to move since they'd finally warmed up to survivable. Hux held to Poe tightly and hardly moved except to occasionally shiver.

The world eventually turned grey and Poe was able to pick out tree trunks. The fog lingered as the sky lightened and dawn came. The animal sounds changed. He could see birds moving between the branches. Hux shifted so he was no longer plastered to him, although he was shivering more now. It had been a miserable night for both of them on a physical front.

Sunlight touched the highest treetops. Hux pulled his legs up and stood. "Thank you," he said stiffly, before turning away and walking just as stiffly to the furthest extent of the top of the mound. This was only two strides away so it wasn't far. His butt was dirty. So was his shoulder and a patch of his hair. He coughed wetly and tried to stretch without looking like he was stretching.

Poe looked after him and thought about saying something sarcastic or smug. He decided not to. It had been a rough night. He got to his feet and stretched without reservation. "Well. That was worse than the interrogation table." He was lying, but not by much.

Hux snorted and cleared his throat. "If there is no rescue today … I don't know if I will survive that again."

"Hopefully, we'll be drier."

"But still – we need to … prepare for the possibility that there will _be_ no rescue. We have to find a safer place to sleep. Perhaps somewhere we can make a shelter. And running water, instead of this stagnant, stinking stuff."

"No argument here," Poe said. He was thirsty, but not about to drink the stagnant stuff around them.

Hux nodded. "We've already explored two of the four directions from the crash site and a third is into the water. That leaves one – directly away from it."

"Let's go. I'm no keener than you are on getting too far away from it, but you're right – we have to be able to make it day to day. Or through the night."

"That was not a good night."

"It had its moments."

Hux sighed, relaxing the general's façade for a moment. "It did."

Poe's brows rose, but it had lasted only a moment; Hux was no longer relaxed. He was on the move. They went back to the crash site first, then struck off from there doing their untrained best at orienteering. Poe marked the way as they went, arranging fallen logs and setting stripped branches at eye level. Hux helped.

The woods were even more alive than they'd been the day before, having possibly been subdued before by the crash. Poe looked up as a small herd or flock of lizard-like things the size of his hand leapt through the branches with incredible acrobatics. He scowled at them, hoping they weren't related to monkey-lizards. He hated monkey-lizards. "I wouldn't mind eating one of those."

"They'd hardly make a mouthful," Hux said. "But I agree with you. Food is a priority. Just not as much of one as surviving the elements."

"If our clothes are dry by tonight, it shouldn't be that bad."

"The air is dank at night. Fog covers the ground. We have to defeat that."

"Hey, there's a clear area up ahead," Poe said, pointing.

They turned their path toward it, emerging into a clearing big enough to put a cruiser down in. The trees on the far side looked shorter, but maybe that was due to the tall grass between them. The ground here was higher, drier, and there was a pool further to the left, with a slow-moving stream feeding it and flowing on in the direction of the swamp.

Having found moving water, they both slaked their thirst. As they sat up after, Hux said, "We don't have good visibility here. Predators can hide in that grass."

"We can stomp some of it down."

"That's a start."

"Well," Poe said, standing, "let's start." They knocked down the grass for a score of meters, with the sun shining down on them through scattered clouds. Finally, the chill of the night was dispelled. Hux moved over next to the pool and shed his clothes, one after another, right down to nakedness.

Poe's brows rose again, but Hux didn't so much as give him a glance. He just crouched, everything hanging out, and began to wash the mud from his uniform. Poe stared at him a little more. Hux was thin. His spine was more evident than Poe was used to seeing on an adult human. He had a huge, fresh bruise over his hips, probably from the crash. Higher up his back, he had much older scars that looked suspiciously like lash marks. That was when Poe finally jerked his eyes away.

Poe walked over to the pool, a handful of meters away, and stripped down as well. He had less to take off, but plenty of lake scum to scrub from the fabric. He wasn't sure there was enough daylight to get everything dry again (and he noticed Hux was only washing his outer layer – the underclothes were hung neatly on some tree branches, no washing applied), but he cleaned anyway. He left his socks out and opened up his boots to dry as much as they would.

Clothes done, Hux got in the water himself and washed the caked blood and mud out of his hair and from the side of his face. There was something strapped to his right forearm. "Hey," Poe said, "what is that?"

Hux gave him a wary look. "It's a knife."

"You have a weapon?" Poe was shocked. But then again, there hadn't been anything for Hux to use it on … except Poe. Whom he'd had many chances to use it on. And had not. His opinion of Hux's sense of personal honor rose a notch.

"Yes," Hux hissed at him through bared teeth. He did not follow it up with a threat.

"Well, there's, uh, a lot we can do with a knife. Since we have one."

" _I_ have one. And it is _only_ a knife. It is not an axe or a spear-point or a shovel."

"Is it a vibroknife?"

"No. It has a monomolecular blade. It's light. It's thin. And it's _fragile_."

"Oh." He was disappointed.

"A vibroknife would be too bulky to conceal up my sleeve."

"You carry that all the time?"

"Of course."

"How fragile is it?"

"It can cut flesh and bone almost as well as passing through air, but crystals and ceramics will shatter it. It doesn't hold up to lateral force very well, either."

"Well, wood is softer than bone-"

"It is _not_ an axe," Hux cut in.

Poe wobbled his head back and forth in a copy of the trooper and Hux from the day before. "It's the only tool we have. It's better than nothing." Hux didn't answer and kept washing himself. Poe joked, "So, if I get in the water here and bathe, do I stop being a filthy rebel? Who will I be after this?"

Hux chuckled and there was a gentle quality to the sound. "You'll be easier to be around. But you'll still be a filthy rebel."

"Okay. Just making sure nothing important will change." Poe waded in. It was not deep, coming up only to mid-thigh. It wasn't intolerably cold, but it still did uncharitable things to his nether regions. He sat down, lest his retracted state be thought normal.

After he was clean, Poe laid spread-eagled on the ground in the warm sun, staring up at the nearly-clear azure sky. At the moment, it was streaked only with high cirrus clouds. Many capital ships could be visible from a planetary surface, if the atmosphere was clear and the ship's hull sufficiently reflective. But he saw nothing – nothing headed their way, no ships at all. He sighed and rolled his head to the side to see what Hux was up to since he, too, had exited the pool.

Hux had checked the clothing hanging on the branches and then meandered over to the other side of the stamped-down area. He was squatting, doing something, Poe could see. He definitely wasn't simply enjoying the sun and moping about not seeing any pending rescue. Poe rose and walked over, feeling more than a little weird to be nude.

"Stay out of my light," Hux said before Poe had reached him. He had a small pile of fluffy matter on the ground, vegetation of some kind, and in his hand was a reed bent in two. At first, that was all it looked to be. Poe squatted opposite him and saw a glint of reflection between the two slender green spars of the blade of grass. There was a tiny lens or crystal held between the sides of the reed. Under it, on the fluff, was a bright spot. "The knife isn't the only tool we have," Hux said with a smirk.

"Oh!" A huge grin spread across Poe's face. "We're about to have fire!"

"I think we are." Hux bared his teeth triumphantly in response. The tiniest tendril of smoke curled up.

"You gotta blow on it," Poe said helpfully when Hux simply continued to move the focal point around, slowly scorching his fuel.

"What?"

"Here," Poe said, going on all fours so he could get his face lower. "I'll do it. You keep doing that." He breathed out gently, trying to remember how to vitalize the flame. After the fifth or sixth try, it caught abruptly, flaring along the edges of the fluff and turning them to ash.

"More fuel!" Hux grabbed around at a few other bits of dry grass nearby, feeding them to the nascent fire. Poe hurried off to gather bits of bark and leaves, returning quickly. "We need _logs_ ," Hux told him crossly when he came back.

"No, we don't. We need little stuff at first. Logs come later."

"How would you know?"

"I _know_!" Poe left to get sticks and followed that by bringing back a section of rotted, punky wood that hadn't been as soggy as some of the other wood available. He handed it off to Hux to manage feeding the fire, then sat down to put on his boots. Doing this naked felt … weird, but doing it without his boots on was just not safe, as the two sore spots on the bottom of one foot informed him. He wasn't sure what he'd stepped on, but fortunately it had merely hurt instead of actually puncturing his sole. "It's going to be tough to gather anything big enough to burn without any way to cut it."

"It's not an _axe_ ," Hux said insistently, knowing what Poe was getting at.

His request to borrow the knife rebuffed, Poe moved off to the thicket of trees where the stream entered the woods. He stripped off green branches, the longest he could find, and brought them back.

"Will those burn?" Hux asked.

"No. It's too green."

"And …?"

Poe shook his head. "Okay, I'll get wood. You could do that, too, you know." He stomped off toward the forest.

"I'm tending the fire," Hux called after him.

Over his shoulder, Poe grumbled, "It doesn't need tending now. It needs fuel."

As he was coming back, he passed Hux going into the forest himself and acting very much like he didn't see Poe. Poe chuckled. "I guess you changed your mind?"

"Shut up."

Poe stacked his findings and returned to searching. As he tugged carefully at an ideal piece that was tangled in thorny green vines (and thinking about how he needed to have his clothes on for this), he saw a critter about the size of BB-8, but brown and furred. It hustled deeper into the vines. He dropped the log, pivoted, and found Hux. "Hey. You want to eat tonight?"

"What? Of course. Did you find fruit?"

"No. Better. But I need your knife."

"You do not need my knife. It is _my_ knife and you would be wise to stop asking for it!" He bared his teeth again, but this time not triumphant. Just threatening.

"Come with me." Poe started walking toward the stream.

"Why, so you can bludgeon me when I'm not looking and take it from me?" Hux had not followed.

Poe stopped, pausing more due to Hux's strident tone and obvious fear than the accusation itself. "No. Because if you won't let me borrow it, then you need to come use it for me. I need a spear."

"For what?"

"I didn't explain." Poe shook his head and rolled his eyes. He was too used to people trusting him. But it wasn't like he could say they didn't have time for an explanation. "There's a thing over there in the bush that looks like a big rodent or a rabbit or something. It looks like something we could eat. I _want_ to eat it. I'm not going to survive that crash and last night just to starve here."

Hux considered that. "Is it big enough for both of us to eat?"

Poe nodded. "We'll share it. We have a fire. We can cook it. But I need a spear." Poe started off again.

Hux nodded and followed. Poe led him to where he'd stripped off the green branches earlier and pointed out a handful of straight, limber saplings at the edge of the clearing. They were a few meters high and a couple centimeters in diameter at the base. Hux said skeptically, "These won't be stout enough to stop a human, much less an animal."

"It's a small animal. It'll work."

"Are you skilled with a spear?" But he was already kneeling next to the largest one and cutting it.

Poe held the trunk steady. "Nope. But I'm pretty good at doing what I need to stay alive."

Hux shot him a surprising and brief smile. The trunk separated with a single, easy stroke. Poe didn't know what he meant about 'it's not an axe' because it did a better job than any axe would have. Hux stood and carefully trimmed the side branches and top. He'd cut the trunk at a sharp angle to start with, then finished it into a point. It wasn't in the center like Poe would have liked, but (as Hux kept reminding him) it wasn't his knife. Poe said, "This will work."

"Unless the creature freezes in place, you'll need help. It won't just stand there and let you spear it."

"Sounds good. We can do this together."

Hux nodded soberly. Poe waited while Hux put his boots on (and underwear, for unexplained reasons as to why he'd decided to be modest _now_ ), then led the way to where he'd seen the thing.

"There it is," he murmured, then chucked the spear at it. It missed by an embarrassing margin. Their dinner skittered away through the trees. Poe ran for the spear, then chased it.

"Don't just chase it in a straight line!" Hux yelled at him. He'd taken off to the right in a direction the animal hadn't gone.

"It's over here!" Poe called back to him. "What are you doing over there?"

"Imagine it's a TIE fighter! Drive it toward me!"

Oh. That was a thought. Use actual tactics instead of just charging after it. Poe changed immediately, swerving to the side and trying again with the spear. After missing it a third time, he stopped throwing it. He wasn't accurate enough with it and once thrown, he had to veer off pursuit to recover it.

After some adventure through the woods, he finally got the animal headed straight for Hux, who dove at it with his bare hands. Poe had no idea how that would work as a tactic (seemed like an easy way to get bit), but the animal was having none of it. It dodged back toward Poe, who managed to stab it with the spear. Skewered to the ground, it squalled once before Hux reached it and cut its head off.

"Wow. Kay. That's a little overkill," Poe said of the beheading.

"Well, I … didn't mean to. I was going to slit its throat."

"How often do you practice with that knife?"

"I practice with a dummy blade. There's more resistance. Not this." He gestured to indicate the knife he was returning to the scabbard after gingerly cleaning it. "These are hard to get in the Order. And as I said, they break easily."

Poe chuckled and picked the thing up by a clawed hind leg. He wondered if this was the sort of thing that had made the mound they'd been on the night before. It was about the right size. "Well, it's fine. We weren't going to eat that part anyway."

Hux smiled. "Hmp. We managed that." He gestured at the body. "What barbarians we are."

"Barbarians with dinner. Let's go make sure the fire is still going."

"And not burning the forest down in our absence. Not that that's much of a danger in a wood this wet." Hux picked up a few of the drier pieces of said wood on their way back.

Poe carried the spear and creature. "Where did you get that crystal you started the fire with?"

"It was a component of my code cylinder."

"I didn't see a code cylinder in your clothes."

"It's behind the belt buckle."

"Why is it there?"

"I didn't want it on the chest like every other officer. I'm a general. I get privileges."

Poe laughed. "Okay."

"I liked my appearance when I wasn't slogging through the mud and scampering through the woods in my underwear."

"I like your appearance, too. Either way."

Hux gave him a sharp look, then it turned thoughtful as his gaze darted around Poe's face. Hux looked away and changed the subject. "Do you know how to cook?"

"Uh … not really."

"Do you know how to prepare it for cooking?"

"Nope," Poe said. "Remove the guts and hide. That's really all I know. Put it over the fire for a while. We always took rations when we went camping – me and my dad. Sometimes he'd forage stuff and he showed me what to look for, but the plants are all different here."

"Give it to me," Hux said of the animal. They'd reached the fire, which was still going and had only burned a little of the green grass around it. "I'll … do what I can."

"I'll get more wood." On his last trip back, he saw Hux over at the pool, washing the skinned carcass. Poe dropped off his load and walked over. "Need help?"

"Hm."

It wasn't an answer, but Poe knelt beside him and picked up the other half of the thing. "This isn't dirt." He'd assumed it was. He sniffed at whatever had contaminated the meat. It smelled like bile and worse. "It stinks."

"I cut it in half," Hux said testily.

"Oh. Ew." Poe's lip curled in disgust. "Why did you do that?" Hux didn't answer. "It's ruined," Poe said, caught between angry accusation and disappointment. "You ruined it."

"Then don't eat it!" Hux's teeth were bared again. The knife was in his hand and although he wasn't brandishing it, there was no reason why he had needed to pick it up to help him wash the meat.

"Hey, I'm the one who killed it!" Poe held up both hands, palms outward so there was no mistaking his non-violent intent. He was more frustrated than angry in any case.

"Then go kill another one! This is the condition this one is in."

Poe sat there, half a dead mammal in front of him, the thing smeared with what was probably excrement, and realized the fantasies he'd barely even had about eating well had crashed and burned just like the escape pod. His stomach chose that moment to growl. Or maybe churn.

Hux glared at him. "Give that one to me." He extended the hand that didn't have the knife in it.

Poe handed the carcass to him. "Let me have the other," he said quietly. With a narrow-eyed, suspicious look, Hux dropped the knife at his own feet and complied. Poe sniffed it. It didn't smell that bad now that Hux had washed it thoroughly, as he was attempting to do with the other half. It appeared to have been skinned properly, at least, with all the extremities and viscera cut away. Poe washed it again anyway, swallowed down his objections, and went to the fire. Hux joined him eventually, after he was satisfied with the cleaning job on the other half.

By then, Poe had stripped the smallest of the thin green branches he'd brought over earlier. He set a bundle of them in front of Hux. "Can you sharpen those?" he asked carefully.

Hux breathed out heavily and for a moment Poe thought it was an indignant sigh. But the man's expression didn't match it. It was … tension defusing. At least some of it. Hux nodded, sat cross-legged, and did as asked. "How did you know you'd kill something when you gathered these?"

"I didn't," Poe told him. "I thought I'd set them up so we could put our clothes on them and maybe they'd dry faster if they were near the fire."

"Ah."

Poe picked up the sticks and skewered the body with them, pausing to taste the stick just in case it was bitter or poisonous or something. It seemed normal enough, so he continued. Once it was arranged as he wanted, he set it as near the fire as he dared. He went over to where the entrails were and fished out the liver.

"What's that?" Hux said as he took his find over to the pool for washing.

"Chepek liver was a delicacy when I was stationed on Mirren Prime." Maybe he could salvage something pleasant out of this. It seemed to be cleaning off better than the meat did.

"Do you know how to cook it?"

"Sort of. They would prepare it right in front of us at the bar, slicing it into pieces and searing it on a cupa stone. I don't think there was anything fancy about it. It was just cooked. It should work the same way on a skewer." He brought it over and put it on a stick. He flipped the meat while he was at it.

"You said your father took you camping?" Hux was picking up the longer green branches, the ones Poe had passed over when looking for ones to use on the meat, and was stripping and sharpening them.

"Yeah, a few times. Well, maybe, ten or twenty times. A few times a year when I was growing up. He was really good with all this woodcraft stuff." Poe waved at the wilderness around them. "Too bad I didn't pay more attention."

"He didn't … require … your attention?"

"What?" Poe fetched his underwear and plopped down to remove his boots.

"How did you fail to pay attention? Did he not notice?"

"Uh … I just uh … I don't understand." He put his underwear on and set his boots (and the socks now damp from being inside wet boots) near the fire.

"My father insisted on proper attention at all times. If … if that was lacking there was punishment. Until he was satisfied." Hux swallowed roughly. "Is that … Is it not a requirement in the New Republic?"

Poe cocked his head, remembering the lash marks on Hux's back. They were very old. "Do you mean, are all parents not abusive jerks in the New Republic? No, they aren't. That's … that's not considered acceptable."

Hux paused, seeming to think that over. "What's not acceptable?" He stabbed the sticks into the ground a little downwind of the fire.

"Punishing a kid for not paying attention. I mean, getting on to them is normal, especially if they were ignoring something dangerous or important. But," Poe gestured at the wilderness again, "not paying attention to how to start a fire in the woods when I was living on Yavin IV and there's no reason to think I'll ever need to know that stuff? No, that's not the sort of thing kids are punished for."

"Oh." Hux went over and retrieved their clothes from the tree.

"What do you mean by punishment, anyway?" Poe called over.

"Striking. Verbal discipline. Assignments. Revoking of privileges. Or a combination." Hux returned and arranged the garments on the new branches next to the fire.

"What sort of privileges?"

"Eating. Sleeping. Rank. Access to-"

"Wait, eating and sleeping?"

"When you're a child, you don't have a lot of other privileges."

"That's not a privilege. That's a right!" Poe asserted. Hux eyed him like he was speaking binary. Poe shook his head. "Okay, never mind. I've heard stories about the First Order."

"Reliable ones?"

Poe shrugged. "From Finn. And I've read reports from Cardinal."

Hux snorted. "Finn knew nothing but the stormtrooper program. And Cardinal was an idiot. He idolized my father."

The fire crackled. Poe reached over and flipped the meat. "You didn't?"

"Of course not. I'm not blind. I know very well the monster he was. I've just never been sure how normal it was to be that way." Hux sat down again and asked, "How long does this need to cook?" He leaned forward to look at the meat.

"I dunno." Poe pulled out the liver. "Let's try this."

"That's … I thought that was yours."

"Nope. Sharing." He offered it to Hux. "You've got the knife." Hux sliced it in two, keeping the slightly smaller half for himself and giving the other part to Poe. Poe looked at the division and decided it was equitable enough. He slurped it down, realizing as he did that it wasn't entirely done. Hux copied him. Half-raw or not, it didn't taste that bad. Especially when he was starving. "Nothing like going a day or two without food to make stuff taste great."

"Yes, that … no complaints. Is the rest done?" Hux was licking his lips. A bit of blood had escaped the corner of his mouth.

"Probably not," Poe said, eying the red line and deciding it suited Hux. "But I'm not against trying it. I'm not sure what cooking food actually does to it, anyway."

"Sterilizes it."

"Yeah, well. Most microbes in this galaxy aren't much danger to us. Hand it over."

Hux passed him his half. "Tell me about your father," he said in a subdued voice.

Poe blinked at him. "What about him?"

"I …" Hux seemed diffident, but he spoke quickly, like he wanted to get the words out before he changed his mind. "I don't know what I'm asking. I only know my own father. I don't know anyone else's. It's never been something I've discussed with others. As I said …" He shook his head and took shelter in biting into a meaty portion of his meal.

Poe chewed a bit. (This, too, was not fully cooked, although it was charred in places and the exterior _looked_ cooked. And also dry and chewy.) "He's a good man – my father. His name's Kes. He did his best for me. He wanted the best _for_ me. He served in the Rebellion, along with my mother. She died when I was eight, so most of my growing up was just with him and some of his friends who pitched in to help raise me. He showed me how to repair engines, taught me how to understand binary. He showed me how to lead a target and use a blaster. He talked to me about the need for freedom and the honor you gained from protecting others."

Poe was quiet for a long moment as he reflected on his father, then added, "I didn't like him much when I was a kid. But the longer this war has gone on and the older I've become, the more I understand him. It's not normal in the New Republic to beat a child or force them to be a soldier. My father fought to make sure we had the freedom to be kind. And to find the good in people, although that was more my mother's thing."

Poe went back to eating. Here and there, the meat tasted 'off'. He told himself this was due to it being a weird animal on an alien planet and not due to insufficient washing of contaminated meat. His stomach didn't seem to care, so that was good enough.

Hux nodded slowly. "When I was a child, I assumed there was a grand purpose to everything my father did. He said there was, and that I was too stupid to understand it. Eventually, I realized there was no purpose. Or at least, no purpose other than keeping his power."

"He sounds like a jerk."

"He was. He's dead now."

"I know."

Hux gave him a brief side-eye. It sounded like the reports of Brendol Hux's general sociopathy were true. (These had other sources than just Cardinal.) Poe didn't want to think about what it would have been like to grow up with someone like that as one's father, but the thoughts were there anyway. They took their time eating and said no more of it. The sun had set before they were done. They both rose and dressed to ward off the inevitable chill. The clothes were still damp in spots, but at least they weren't outright wet.

"There was no rescue," Hux said dourly as he resumed his seat next to the fire.

Poe looked up at the clear night sky and winking stars. He didn't know the local constellations well enough to tell what might be a ship, and besides, there was likely still a lot of debris in orbit. "How long will people last in those escape pods?"

"A week or two. And they should have enough fuel and maneuvering ability to maintain stable orbits."

Poe nodded. He tried lying on the ground next to the fire. Unsurprisingly, it was hard, but at least he wasn't wet and shivering. The damp spots in his clothes weren't helping, though. He shifted around restlessly.

Hux had his knees drawn up in front of him. The fire illuminated him as he chewed at the thin ribs of the creature, intent on getting every last calorie of goodness out of it. "Are you cold?" He looked over at Poe slyly.

Was that a come-on? It sounded like one. Poe wiped the smile off his face as soon as he realized it was there and said as innocently as he could, "Yes."

"I thought so," Hux declared smugly. It was not, after all, a come-on. Poe let out the breath he'd been holding. Hux continued in the same superior vein, "The fire draws warm air upward, you see. Lying on the ground as you are, you're only getting a bit of infrared. Not even much at that. You must be terribly uncomfortable."

Poe rolled his eyes at the entirely unnecessary description of basic thermodynamics. "Are you always like this?"

"Like what?"

"Full of yourself."

"Who else would I be full of?"

Poe choked and coughed. Was Hux joking and playing it straight or did he really not understand what he'd said? Or was Poe just persistently seeing something that wasn't there, from their very first encounter? "I dunno," Poe said. "I guess we could always find out."

"What?" Hux's tone was sharp and wary.

Poe relaxed, sprawling a bit on the ground. In his most seductive voice, he said, "Why don't you come over here and warm me up, if you're so concerned about how cold I am." Poe oversold it so there was no doubt what he was offering.

Hux swallowed. He didn't look at Poe, taking a sudden interest in stoking the fire. Poe saw him sigh. He wondered if he should make a joke of it, let the guy off the hook here or something. It wasn't like some stuffy First Order general like himself would want to lie with a hated Resistance member. But Poe said nothing. Hux had wanted to torture him to death just yesterday. Let him deal with a little awkwardness. If the innuendo and looks on Hux's end meant nothing, then this was the man's chance to clear that up.

Several long beats passed as Hux regarded their surroundings. Then he rose and walked to Poe, circling behind him. He settled and spooned against him, close, but not embracing him. Poe adjusted out of his sprawl and into a normal position. They didn't speak or do anything else. After some long minutes, Hux crept a little closer to him, warm and flush against his back. They fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bad reputation of liver here in the US is undeserved. Or rather, it's an artifact of the way it's prepared and for a long time, of how it was sold. It was sold as a cheap meat, a second or third rate cut, purchased by those who wanted meat but couldn't afford the cuts 'high on the hog', so to speak. It spoils quickly and was or is often subject to being "thoroughly" cooked. Or boiled. Which leaves you with a tough, bitter bit of meat that's often paired with strong vegetables like onions to conceal the taste.
> 
> All well and good if you're poor and need meat.
> 
> If you have the opportunity to get fresh liver, though, it is delicious. Lightly fried in butter or oil, with or without a breading, it is delicate and soft, appealing and yummy. Or at least so has been my experience of fresh liver from cattle, deer, pigs, chickens, and turkey. If you wait a few days, it's not good and you might as well toss it out (or cook it to death with onions, I suppose, but I never bothered).
> 
> I imagine that on Mirren Prime, Poe visited a bar something like a sushi bar, but in addition to raw fish, they provided red meats that benefit from freshness and light cooking.


	4. Predators

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They gain stuff; they lose stuff. But either way, they have each other's backs a little more.

Poe woke to a noise and Hux's hand clutching his side. There was something in the woods on the far side of the embers of the fire. He sat up in the trusting manner of someone who isn't used to waking in a dangerous environment, running a hand through his hair. "What was that sound?" he asked, but Hux wasn't even next to him to talk to.

He would have turned to see where Hux went, but a creature about half the size of a gundark (which still made it as big as four people), and looking a great deal like one, leapt around the fire toward him. "Whoa!" Poe scrambled to get the spear up, but he only managed to graze its shoulder before it was on him. It easily knocked the spear out of the way, bowled him over onto his back, and bit him firmly on his right shoulder and upper chest.

He yelled, fumbling to choke up on the spear and poke it, but it gave him no time. It shook him so hard his neck whiplashed and he lost focus, suddenly so dizzy he was nauseated. The spear clattered free of his nerveless hand and he barely hung onto consciousness. Another round of that, he thought blearily, and I'll be dead.

But it dropped him and leapt, snarling, to the side, slashing out with a clawed hand at something in the dark. Poe didn't see anyone, but it had to be Hux. Poe lay on the ground, his head spinning, and managed to wrap his fingers around the spear. His eyes didn't seem to be working right yet. The creature was ignoring him, just standing there.

It took an uncertain step to the side, then coughed. There was blood on its lips. It stood there quietly, the profile Poe could see looking preoccupied. Poe stayed still, not wanting to jinx it by stabbing the thing with his spear. Besides, his arm felt wrong. The creature swallowed roughly a few times. Blood began to patter to the ground from the other side of it. Then it swayed and fell, dead.

Poe looked around and sat up, fighting off a wave of dizziness. Hux was nowhere to be seen at first, then he came out of the darkness with knife in hand. Poe asked, "What … what happened?"

"I saved your life. We're even now!" He said it with such vehemence that Poe was taken aback, like the life debt he'd claimed against Hux earlier had been somehow unfair. He was a little afraid of what things would be like between them if Hux felt they were 'even'. Was he safe? Poe chewed his lips slowly.

Hux studied his face, then breathed out heavily as though making some decision of his own. "Get the fire going again. We may as well eat while the meat is fresh."

Poe nodded. He moved carefully. His right arm didn't work properly. Like his hand was fine, but he had no strength in his upper arm. His collarbone hurt and he wondered if it was broken or dislocated. For now, he didn't say anything about it. He used his left hand to throw what wood was left on the fire as Hux cut out a large hunk of meat from the thing's muscular back.

He sat next to Hux as the fire flared up and they roasted the meat about as badly as their previous meal. "Thank you," Poe said after a while. "For saving me."

"It is a debt paid."

"But if you'd let it kill me, there wouldn't have been a debt at all."

Hux flicked an unburned end of wood into the active part of the fire. "Good of you to point that out. Perhaps next time I'll consider more carefully before acting."

Poe laughed. "You have to be joking."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Hux sniffed. He was definitely joking, but it was tough to tell from his tone.

"Fairness matters a lot to you, doesn't it?"

"It matters to everyone."

"It's funny the things you get evasive about," Poe said.

"I'm not being evasive!"

"We're talking about me and you. Not 'everyone.' For example, _I_ think it's more important to be right than fair."

"Well, then it's a good thing for you I disagree. The two are synonymous, anyway."

"No, they're not."

"Yes, they are," Hux snapped. Poe grimaced and touched at his shoulder. Hux asked, "Did it get you?" His voice was instantly different, though it was neutral rather than what Poe would have thought of as worried.

Poe nodded. "It picked me up and nearly broke my neck with all that shaking. My head's starting to hurt. Now we're both concussed."

"Ah."

"It's _fair_ ," Poe said, rubbing at his neck, "for something bigger than me to tear me apart like a doll. But it's not _right_."

"I'm sure that creature thought it was right. And fair. Assuming it was intelligent enough to have such concepts, which I doubt." Hux turned his head to study Poe, looking at his hands, his face, and his upper chest with a penetrating gaze.

Poe shook his head. "Okay, maybe that wasn't a good example. I-"

"Let me see your shoulder."

"What?" But Hux was already moving to where he was in front of Poe, but not blocking the feeble light from the fire. "Um, okay." Poe tugged at his top. "You'll either have to pull this up or pull down the collar." Hux opted to pull down the collar. Poe said, "I don't have a good angle. What do you see?"

"Not much. It's too dark and the light is uncertain. We'll clean it in the morning. You're not bleeding to any degree that's worrisome." Hux turned to the meat, pulling it off the fire and using his knife to slice it in two. He handed a piece to Poe and sat next to him. It felt like a dismissal of his injuries until Hux conversationally said, "I think we're going to die out here if we don't acquire more resources. We should return to the escape pod and sunken or not, recover what we can out of it."

Poe choked down a bite that was cooked as he'd expected – overcooked on the outside, raw on the inside. But at least it wasn't contaminated. "It's dark now and I won't be able to swim well with my shoulder like this."

"I'm a strong swimmer."

"It's still dark," Poe grumbled. "My head is throbbing." He rubbed at his forehead.

"There will be medicine in the pod. It will be daylight soon." Hux looked around tensely, scanning the area around them.

"You're _concerned_."

"Of course," Hux snapped. "Next time, it might bite _me_."

"Yeah … right," Poe said slowly. "You threaten loud. But everything else is quiet."

Hux scowled at him. "Your thinking is poor. Let us move away from this corpse. If it attracts something else, let us be far enough away we are not mistaken for an additional meal or a challenger."

"Sure. We're out of firewood anyway."

They moved away to beneath the large tree next to the pool. With the water on one side and the tree behind them, it had a tiny protective factor. Poe sat on the side next to the water, with Hux on the outside. He decided not to say anything about it. Maybe Hux was right and he was seeing things because he wanted to see them.

They sat shoulder-to-shoulder, leaning on one another, and dozed fitfully until the sun rose. Hux still had some of his share of meat from the gundark-thing. He divided it in two again and they broke their fast on it. The carcass had been relatively undisturbed through the night – a score of crustaceans hurried away from it, but none were larger than Poe's hand and they didn't seem threatening. It had attracted nothing worse and that was what mattered.

"How's the arm?" Hux asked.

Poe grimaced. "Stiff. I don't know if anything's broken. Headache isn't as bad. My neck hurts."

"I could wash the wounds, but we have nothing sterile and I don't think it would do any good. We need the survival kit in the escape pod."

Poe nodded. "I agree."

Their walk to the crash site went easily enough. The logs and branches marked the way. Once there, they stripped to their underwear. Poe kept his boots. Hux left his boots on the shore. Poe waded out into the water following Hux, stopping when it was about waist level. The ground under his feet was uneven sucking mud interspersed with hard things he assumed were pieces of rotting trees or maybe roots. They made the footing unreliable, boots or not.

Hux went out further, eventually pushing off and swimming to the clear area where they'd last seen the pod. He treaded water for a while, then dove. It took a very long time – long enough that Poe moved out further, to mid-chest, worried. He wished he'd counted off seconds or something else, because it felt like Hux had been down there for minutes. Finally, though, he resurfaced.

"Hey," Poe called. "You okay?" Hux didn't answer. He was gasping for air as he treaded water, but seemed calm aside from getting his breath. Poe tried again. "I know you said you were a strong swimmer, but lift a hand if you're alright." Hux waved a hand at him limply, still breathing hard. He remained there, staring off into nothing and breathing deeply, until he dove again, never having said a word to Poe.

Poe grimaced, sighed, and waited. Something was touching his calf. He wondered if it was a leech and tried to stand on one foot and brush it off. Birds twittered. Insects buzzed. The wounds on his shoulder itched and he resisted scratching them. After a similarly too-long period, Hux came up again. He was still empty-handed.

"It's down there, right?" Poe asked. Hux nodded. "Okay … What are you _doing_ down there?" Hux continued his breathing exercises and dove again. After he was gone, Poe said, "You're an asshole. Do you know that? You're a worse team player than I am. You need to tell your team what's going on! I don't even know if you need help!"

He hadn't counted off seconds the second time or the third (he was, after all, still somewhat concussed), but it wasn't nearly as long before something white and luminous in the dark water (more so than Hux's pasty skin) came rising up with a handful of air bubbles. A bag as long as a human's torso and bigger around than most broke out of the water and bobbed high on the surface. Hux emerged moments later.

"Finally!" Poe exclaimed. "What is that? Push it over here and I'll drag it to the bank."

"No!" Hux grabbed the bag and clung to it.

"What are you doing?" Poe sputtered at him in exasperation. "Do you think I'm going to steal it or something? Where would I go?"

"It's buoyant," Hux got out. He was breathing hard, as before.

Poe blinked. He'd moved in almost neck deep with his arm extended toward the thing, but he stopped now as he realized the probable reason for Hux's behavior – he was tired; this was difficult for him. "Oh. Okay. Catch your breath. Take a rest. Yeah, we're not in a hurry." He backed off. He tried to joke, "This is really, like, an exercise in patience for me."

Hux took time out from gasping to roll his eyes at him, head wobble included. Poe chuckled. At least this time it wasn't Hux thinking the worst of him. Hux dove again, leaving the bag to float unattended. Poe could have snared it if he'd wanted, but he let it be. Several air bubbles broke and this time, same as the last, a bag came up quickly, followed by Hux. This bag rode lower in the water and he hung onto the first one while pushing the second to Poe.

"You have to give me things to do, otherwise I'll go crazy here," Poe told him as he dragged the bag to the bank.

When he came back, Hux said, "Here's your task, then: work on your patience."

Poe pulled a face at him. He wasn't sure if Hux got the joke, because he dove again. More bubbles rose and he took longer underwater again, but not as long as the first two times. He came up panting with a box in hand. It didn't float. "To shore," Hux said. "I'm spent for now."

They slogged back to where it was, if not dry, then at least not standing water. Hux took off his underwear, wrung them out, then put them back on again. Poe didn't know what good that would do, but he opened the nearest bag instead of pointing that out. The bag held ration bars and water pouches, along with hygiene supplies. He held up a sealed packet of the latter. "Oh man. I am so glad to see this stuff! To be stranded out here with nothing but leaves … that would be torture."

Blandly, Hux said, "A new threat to add to my arsenal the next time you are at my mercy." He reached over and snagged a meal bar, ripping it open. "Might as well enjoy the fruits of our labors. What I would give for these kits to carry taurine tea."

Poe joined him in an early lunch. "Caffeine?" Hux nodded. "That stuff's banned for pilots," Poe said. "The First Order allows that? No wonder they fly for shit."

"Pilots aren't allowed it, either. I have a very stressful job."

"Wouldn't drugs just make that worse?"

He sighed. "It did not in the beginning and now I'm addicted and there is not an opportunity in my schedule to go through a purification program."

Poe looked at him. A general addicted to low-grade stims due to difficulty coping with his job duties, and the best medical system in the galaxy couldn't help him because … of said job duties. From what Finn and Cardinal had said, such situations were common in the First Order. They didn't care about their people, so they used them up. He grunted and decided to leave it alone. "What's in that other bag?"

"Survival kit."

"And in the box?"

"I'm not sure. Comfort supplies, maybe?"

Poe picked up the box and examined the latches. "What does the First Order consider to be 'comfort supplies'? Holos of the destruction of Hosnian Prime on repeat?"

Hux snorted. "Blankets, more like. Perhaps a pillow." He said it wistfully.

Poe paused to smile. "Now you're talking my language." He flipped the latches and looked inside. There was no pillow.

"What is it?" Hux asked.

"Two pressurized air tanks with valves and breathers. Or rebreathers. I'm not sure."

"Ah. Backup air supply in case the escape pod air recyclers are compromised, or it crashes in an unbreathable atmosphere."

Poe looked up. "We can salvage the rest of the pod with these. I can help."

Hux nodded. "That we can. Hand me a water pouch."

Poe did. Lifting the last of his meal bar, he said, "I'm sure we'll get tired of these soon, but it's good to have them. There must be weeks worth in there."

"The idea is to have enough food and water to outlast the air recycling system in the pod. You'd rather die from bad air than starvation."

"Huh. Morbid line of thought. Someone actually sits around and thinks about that?"

Hux gestured at the bag. "And works out the math for the number of pouches necessary. Then a rotation schedule to have them swapped out regularly so they're reasonably fresh in the unlikely event that we need them. Which we do. It's all part of running a successful military."

Poe shook his head in bemusement. "I wonder if Leia does that."

"General Organa?"

"Yeah. I wonder if she works out that sort of thing."

"She probably has others do it. Or she would if she had a larger organization. Do you people even have functioning ships anymore? Maybe that was why you didn't want to answer my questions about the disposition of the Resistance vessels."

"What was it that attacked your star destroyer, Mr. High and Mighty?"

Hux rolled his eyes in concession. "Fine." He looked over at movement to their right. "There's one of those frog creatures."

"I wonder what they taste like?" Poe said. "I guess we'll find out sooner or later, huh?"

"I suspect they taste horrid."

"Why's that?"

"Well, nothing else is eating them and they're not very fast or graceful."

"Point. You ever eaten … frogs? Amphibians?"

"I've had chuba. It was good. Of course, it was well-prepared."

"Chuba?"

"It's Huttese. I think they're also called gorgs."

"Gorgs! Yeah, I know what- Hey, you speak Huttese?"

"No. But I understand some of it."

"Huh. Where'd you learn that?"

"Accompanying my father on slave harvesting missions. The Hutts preferred adult slaves, even elderly ones to infants and children too young to be reliably ordered about. We bought the young for a pittance and sometimes even for free."

"But … that's their next generation of slaves. How do they sustain that if they sell the children? Not that I'm a fan of Hutts owning slaves at all, but how does that work?"

"Hutts _trade_ slaves, but their economy isn't based on the labor of slaves. That would be dangerous and antithetical to Hutt philosophy."

"Huh. They keep slaves though, right?"

"Only for entertainment. They get new slaves from the New Republic or the Outer Rim. Just like they did in the last days of the previous Republic. You're no better at stamping out the evils of the galaxy than they were."

"And you think the First Order will do better?" Poe said, unimpressed.

"We have a list of all the galaxy's major slave brokers, to start with. They won't last long if we don't have a war to create the need for purchasing from them."

"Huh," Poe said again. "That's an interesting point."

"Hand me the air tanks."

Poe handed them over. He looked in the direction of the submerged escape pod while Hux fiddled with the tanks. "What's that out there?"

Hux was looking at the straps on the tank. "What?"

Poe pointed at where something was floating. It was a pair of equally-sized knobs followed by a slight ripple in the water that ran for several meters. "That."

Hux squinted. "Debris?"

"That's not debris." Poe got to his feet. "And it's moving."

Hux got to his feet as well, dropping the air tank back in the open box. "Is it?"

"Yeah, it's moving fast. Come on!" He grabbed his clothes, but didn't bother to put them on.

Hux grabbed his boots and then one strap of the survival kit bag. "Get the other side."

Poe did, lifting the bag between them. "And your clothes!" He looked back as Hux grabbed them, tucking them under his free arm. The thing was making serious waves. "Come on, come on, come on!" Whatever it was, was big. They ran. For Hux being barefoot, he still covered ground. Poe squelched with every stride, as he hadn't bothered to empty the water from his boots since he'd thought they were going to be going right back in.

He heard the thing breach upon the muddy shore. A quick glance back showed a massive grey creature with a reptilian maw of teeth. It had short but obviously serviceable legs as it jogged after them surprisingly fast. "Faster!" Poe said. They picked up the pace, keeping in tandem and eventually synchronizing their strides.

They didn't stop until they reached the clearing, although they slowed to a walk by then and both of them kept glancing back as they went. The survival pack was heavy enough that once the adrenaline wore off, Poe was struggling with neck and back pain. Still, they needed this stuff. He didn't complain. "How are your feet?"

"They're fine," Hux said with another wary look behind them. They walked past the gundark body with its handful of crabs picking at it. "Other there. Let's put the pool between us and that corpse."

"At least it doesn't smell yet."

"If it smells enough to attract small scavengers, then it smells enough to attract large ones."

Poe grunted and didn't argue. He was hurting and grateful to drop the bag. He flopped down on his side of it and rubbed gently at his collarbone. Something wasn't right there. "So what does the First Order put in their survival kits?"

Hux unsealed the bag and gestured at the contents as he listed them. "First aid. Trauma kit. Long-term medication. Two-person shelter and thermal blankets."

"Is there a pillow?"

"There might be." Hux pointed out the rest of the kit. "Food and water, but not as much as in the pack we left behind. Quadnoculars. Amino acid profiler. Air sanitation. Some rudimentary tools including a shovel and axe/hammer. Light sources. Cooking kit. Beacons." These he removed and activated one.

"Oh. Well, we'll be rescued right away then."

Hux laughed hollowly. "I've given up on primary rescue. Assuming anyone was inclined to it, they would have picked up all the pods with functioning distress signals yesterday. We've heard no engines, seen no flyovers, and we're definitely still stranded here. I don't know if that means the pod's distress signal isn't functioning, or if there's no search at all."

"But the beacons …"

Hux pointed upward. "They only reach into orbit. This is a deserted system. The best we can hope for is that pirates or some salvage operation comes through and is curious enough to investigate. But there are four beacons here. I don't know how long they last, but we can activate them each in turn. The more time passes, the less likely we are to be picked up."

Depressed by that, Poe pulled out the first aid kit. "We have to go back, then. The comm system in the pod can reach further. Maybe there's a hyperspace relay near enough."

Hux took the cleansing wipe from Poe's hand, since he couldn't see what he was doing given the location of the bite wounds. He leaned in and wiped carefully. "This is badly bruised and somewhat slashed."

"It hurts, yeah," Poe said, watching Hux tend him with a fussy, careful touch that seemed weird for a guy who'd mashed the button for electrical torment a few days before.

Hux told him, "The comm system in the pod was the first thing I tried – my first two dives – was to get the comm system to work. Pulling out kits and supplies wouldn't matter if I could communicate!" He shook his head and moved behind Poe to clean the wounds on his back. "Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"No power at least," Hux said. "And given the limitations of my lungs, I didn't have enough time to work out how to fix it. Although I did try." He came back around front and swapped out for a healing cream, which he dabbed on carefully.

"Well, now that we have air tanks, we can take our time."

"'We' don't have air tanks. A very large, irritable water monster has our air tanks."

Poe sighed. "It's a dumb animal. Let's go back. It probably got bored and wandered off."

Hux gave him a skeptical look and picked up a spray can of synth-skin to seal the wounds. They got dressed after and returned along their make-shift path to the crash site. Poe stopped them some distance out, raising the quadnocs to his eyes to confirm what he'd already glimpsed through the trees. "Kriff."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for reference, the creature at the water's edge is like a cross between a hippopotamus and a crocodile. But since neither of our heroes are familiar with those creatures, I didn't describe it that way.


	5. Vulnerability

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They work together, have a small victory, and almost have a moment together.

"It's still there," Hux said with a distinct lack of surprise.

"Yes. And it looks like a bomb went off in the food pack. It must have figured out those were edible."

"So much for being a dumb animal," Hux said. Poe made an exasperated noise. Hux went on, "I should have grabbed the blaster. None of this would be an issue if I had."

Poe shrugged. "Don't beat yourself up about it. There's no telling where it ended up. Lost in the crash."

"No, I found both of them. I left them underwater."

"What? Why?"

"Because I didn't want to give either of them to _you_ ," Hux said as though that were painfully obvious. "Or have to guard them from you. The knife is bad enough."

"You didn't _have_ to give me one."

"When I finished the dive, the blaster or blasters would go into your hand. Otherwise they sink. So yes, I would have had to give it to you or be finished diving."

Poe scratched his nose next to one eye. "Okay, I guess so."

"You guess so? That's how it works!"

"You could have stuck it in your underwear."

Hux hesitated, thinking about it. "That's not safe."

Poe gave him a lop-sided grin. "Yeah, but it lends itself to _so_ many jokes." Hux pressed his lips together. Poe went on, "Why didn't you want to give it to me? I'm not going to shoot you."

"How do I know that?"

"I wouldn't have saved your life if I wanted you dead."

"You're a Resistance member. It's the principle."

"I'm not much of a Resistance member down here. Besides, you've seen me bathe. I'm sure some of the 'filth' has scrubbed off."

Hux snorted. Poe looked at him and felt the rueful smile creasing his face. Hux asked, "Why are you smiling now?"

"Buddy. Hating on each other is going to get us both killed. We're on the same side here."

"We are n-" Hux stopped himself.

Poe said, "We _are_. We both want to survive. We have to work together. And we have _been_ working together. Right?" Hux lifted his head – not quite a nod, but half of one. Poe added, "Trust is hard. I get that. I didn't have to take your escape pod. I could have taken any other one." He gestured to show the array of choices he'd foolishly passed up. "But I saw you go in that one and I thought I still had something to settle."

"And don't you? Still? Have something to settle?"

Poe gave him a long look, resisting the impulse to simply deny it. "We're even now. You said it yourself."

"That's about the life debt. It doesn't change your allegiance."

"I didn't pick your escape pod because of my allegiance. I picked it because-" Poe cut himself off.

"Go on."

"This isn't helping." He fiddled with the settings on the quadnocs.

"Yes, it is." Hux put a hand briefly on the quadnocs, getting his attention. "I need to know your motivations. So speak. You want my trust? Tell me where your hate comes from."

"Because you were a sadistic bastard and I didn't want you to just get away with it, so you could go do it all over again on some other ship, to some other person, who couldn't stop you."

Hux blinked a few times, his expression neutral. He said nothing.

Poe shook his head. He shouldn't have said that, but damned if it hadn't felt good to say it, and say it directly to Hux's unflinching face. He looked through the quadnocs again. "Since we don't _have_ a blaster, let's figure out another solution. What do we have in that kit we can use?"

Hux seemed to brush off the sudden, intense emotional turn of the conversation without difficulty. "The shovel, the axe. But the creature is huge. The knife isn't long enough to do more than score its hide. My other skills as a warrior are … enough that I know I stand little chance in close quarters with a beast like that. And you're injured."

Poe nodded grimly. "Anything else?"

"There are medicines that could be converted into poisons should someone know how. I do not."

Poe asked, "What about sedatives? Tranquilizers?"

Hux nodded slowly. "There are some. But how to administer them? By the time we're close enough to give it an injection, I might as well try at cutting its throat."

Poe said in a sardonic manner, "There's not a dart gun?" Hux blinked at him disbelievingly. Poe explained, "That's a joke."

Hux rolled his eyes. "No, there's no dart gun."

"Could we poison its food?"

"It seems to have plenty of food at the moment," Hux said huffily. "And again, it's possible, but despite rumors to the contrary, I'm not skilled with poisons." Poe grunted. He hadn't heard those rumors. Hux went on, "I just happen to be friends with someone who is."

"You have friends?" He was half-teasing, half-serious. Though it figured Hux would be friends with some master poisoner. And that the ranks of the First Order included such persons as 'master poisoners.' Hux snorted at the joke. Poe said, "Okay, okay. Let's get back to the subject. What if we just run up and try to scare it?"

"I would never try something so stupid."

"But _I_ would," Poe said blithely, defanging the insult.

"What if it eats you? If you fail, you die."

"You care? I'm touched." Hux gave him a level look. Poe went on, "What about the lights in the kit? We could blind it."

"It's daylight. I doubt it will be any more impressed than I am with your sense of humor."

Poe laughed, but continued down the list of what was in the kit. "Okay, then what about the camp stove thing. There's fuel for that, right?"

Hux responded slowly, thinking it over. "Yes."

"Can we rig it to explode?"

"I'm … not sure? Are you a munitions expert?"

"No," Poe said. "I fly starfighters. I know how to use standard weapons and a lot of non-standard ones, but … what if we just use the fuel to light stuff on fire?"

"Sounds like a waste of fuel. I assume you're going on the assumption it will be afraid of fire. It's a water creature. I'm not sure it will care."

"Water creatures hate fire, right?"

"I can't see why they would," Hux said. "Water puts out fire. Most fires, at least."

He was right about that. "Okay, well, it's the best idea we have. We can take one of those saplings, cut it down, tie a bunch of fiber around the end-"

"What fiber?"

"All that tall grass."

"But it's green. It won't burn. I already tried it in the campfire."

Poe grimaced in irritation at Hux shooting down his ideas. "It will if you get it hot enough! And anyway, there's got to be dead stuff around. We use that."

"How do you keep it on the sapling?"

"We use some of that rope."

"I don't want to burn up the rope. We might need it."

Poe exhaled heavily. He checked the location of the monster. It was still lounging on their stuff. He wished it would charge them so they could end this bickering. "Then we twist up some of the longer green stems and use them. It doesn't have to burn for long."

Hux didn't sound like he thought they were bickering. He was carrying on like they were having a normal conversation. "I'm imagining this ball of dead grass falling off the sapling immediately and you trying to kick it in the direction of the monster."

"Stop imagining that. That's negative thinking and I don't approve of it."

"You don't approve of it?" Hux's lips tightened and the corners of his mouth pulled down, but the rest of his expression looked amused.

"No, I don't," Poe said. "Think positive. Happy thoughts. It'll work!"

"It will not. If we're on the same side, it does me no good to let you kill yourself. This is not sentiment or compassion but enlightened self-interest. You are not a replaceable commodity."

Poe ran a hand through his hair. On the one hand, he wanted to argue, but on the other, was Hux admitting they needed each other? Specifically, that he needed Poe? And that they _were_ on the same side in this? "Okay. Do you have a better idea?" He realized how challenging that sounded and amended his tone. "Or even a different idea?"

Hux was silent, looking down thoughtfully. Poe was tempted to interrupt, but he didn't. He looked through the quadnocs again in the vain hope the monster had chosen to leave. It had not. Hux said, "We're over-focused on the survival kit. We need to think about what the creature wants. It wants to eat things. We have a thing it can eat."

Poe whipped his head aside to look at Hux. "The gundark."

"Yes."

"But it's too heavy for us to move."

"I have a knife."

Poe scratched at his chin. "You _do_ have a knife. But what do we do? Just toss some food at it and hope it lets us walk up and take our stuff?"

"We drop the carcass elsewhere, upwind, and wait for it to investigate. Then we sneak in and take what we can."

"Okay," Poe allowed. "That's not going to buy us enough time to get the blaster."

"We can at least get what we've found. If we get the ration bag away from it, perhaps it will go away of its own accord. Right now, it has no incentive to, as it's sitting on a pile of food."

"Okay, good idea." Poe nodded. "Better idea than mine, by the way." He looked to see if Hux would take the opportunity to gloat.

He did not. Hux said, "It also lets us get rid of the carcass from our camp area, which we need to do if we're to avoid drawing further pests."

"So let's do that."

They returned to camp where Hux sliced off the hind legs of the dead animal, perforating the bowels again. Poe started to say something just as the smell hit him. He frowned and shut his mouth. They were working together here. Hux looked from his knife to the carcass, a disturbed furrow to his brows. He glanced up furtively at Poe. Poe said, "It will wash up."

"Yes, but I would prefer my meat untainted."

Poe shrugged and said as non-judgmentally as he could, "So you'll be more careful next time, right?"

"Yes, I will be. You were much angrier before."

Poe shrugged. "I was out of line before. You're doing the best you can. I get it."

Hux blinked at him slowly.

"What's that about?" Poe asked.

"… Nothing." He set aside the legs. "Maybe we can just cut away the bad parts." The crabs had focused on the patch on the thing's back where Hux had removed the meat for the night before. "Let's see how heavy it is now." Hux took hold of what was left of the pelvis.

Poe tried lifting the head, then the front legs. "I can lift it, but it's too clumsy."

"Unwieldy. _You_ are not clumsy."

"Okay, Mr. Word Choice. It's too unwieldy."

This time, Hux's lips quirked up instead of down. His expression started off amused and then became warmer. "I'll cut off the head," he said after a long pause during which Poe admired that smile. Poe stepped aside and Hux hacked off another part of the creature. It was gory work and Poe should have been put off, but he licked his teeth instead, looking at the mop of dark orange hair and nimble, capable hands. He gave himself a little shake and got back to business.

Hauling the gross load quickly changed Poe's mind to less pleasant thoughts. Lifting a swinging weight was soon making his shoulder scream in agony and his head throb. They had to stop repeatedly as he tried to figure out a better grip. On the third time, Hux suggested, "Let's switch places."

That was easier – he could hook the fingers of his good arm into the pelvis and lift one-handed, while Hux handled the 'unwieldy' forelegs. Also, Hux had had the lighter end, though he didn't complain about the increased weight when he took the front of the beast. They still stopped frequently for rest breaks. Poe's upper chest began to hurt and his head had returned to throbbing about the time they got where they were going.

"I see it," Poe said as they walked the last part of the way. "It's looking at us."

"Well, a few more steps then."

"Can _you_ see it?"

"No."

"Huh. I wonder if I can see better than you can."

"It's-"

Poe interrupted him. "No, it's moving. Drop and run!"

They did, dumping the carcass and making fleet of foot. They didn't run as far as before, stopping to see that the monster had paused about mid-way. It alternated between sniffing the breeze from the dead gundark-thing and looking in their direction. Finally, it settled on jogging to the carcass, whereupon it flopped to the ground and began to feast.

"This is our chance," Poe said. They hurriedly made a circuitous route to the crash site, Poe keeping a frequent lookout as they gathered things up. They threw all the muddy packets and wrappers into the bag, making no attempt to sort them at the moment. Hux found one air tank and tossed that in as well. Poe asked, "Do we have everything?"

"Look for the valve, the breathing mask, and the other air tank! I don't even see the case."

Poe cast around for it. It was no good without it and their chances of further salvage on the pod would be greatly reduced without air. "There!" He pointed over at an especially pummeled section of mud. It looked like the thing had been wallowing on it.

"I don't- Yes, I see it." Hux pulled the breather out of the mud. It was caked and foul. He put it in the bag as well. "Do you see the other one?"

"No. Maybe it's in the water." The water was muddy here, frequently churned by the monster's activities. Everything they could see was coated with a layer of settled mud, softening contours and making it impossible to tell a piece of wood or a furrow of sediment from a buried air tank.

"We have the one at least," Hux said.

"Okay," Poe said. "Let's get out of here."

They made their way back. Hux took the head of the gundark into the woods for disposal while Poe washed packets and began the slow process of sorting good from bad. Hux returned and paused to wash the blood off himself. Poe said, "Looks like about half the stuff can't be used, but like you said, if we take away the food source, maybe that thing will move on and we can go back."

"Have you looked at the air tank?"

"No." Poe gestured. "It's over there."

Hux picked it up and fiddled with it, washed it and the breather, and after a while declared, "I think it will work."

"Good. That's one. Maybe we'll find the other once we aren't there on a tight timetable."

As Poe continued, Hux dragged over the hind legs and worked on them. He cut them into separate legs and disposed of the bits of entrail and viscera between them. Then he washed them and cut away anything suspicious-looking. Hux asked, "How long does meat keep in these conditions?"

"I have no idea. Not long, I think."

"Then perhaps we should eat this tonight and save the rations."

"It's a plan. For anything we don't eat tonight, you should hang it from a tree to keep the crabs off it."

Hux looked from the legs to the tree.

Poe said, "Use some of that rope in the kit."

"Fortunately, we didn't set our rope on fire." Hux said. Poe chortled and let him have his joke. Hux added, "I'll work on getting wood, as well." He took the axe and left Poe to the time-consuming washing.

They ate dinner, finally cooking in the light so they could see what they were doing. It tasted better – no unsavory raw spots or charred bits. As they were finishing, the sun was drifting down. Poe said, "We have enough time to go see if that thing left, but not really enough to do anything if it did."

"Then it wouldn't do us any good. If there are such creatures about at all, I don't want to risk everything by diving in the dark with some camp light. Your arm hasn't had much time to heal. Let's use the time to set up camp."

Poe nodded in agreement. They'd had half a night of sleep in the last two nights. Hux set out the shelter, which unfolded to its finished shape with no more input from them than activating it. Hux said, "At some point, we'll need to create an elevated platform for this."

"Why's that?"

"Rain. Those rodents wouldn't have had mounds like that unless the water level is routinely higher."

"Oh. Good observation." Poe yawned and stretched a little. "My neck is killing me." Hux simply looked at him. Poe said, "Do you have any muscle relaxants in that kit?"

"I don't know." Hux retrieved the kit and handed it to Poe. "There's a list of the contents on the inside of the lid." Poe flipped it open and squinted at the list in the dusk. Hux turned on a camp light and moved around behind him. He plucked at Poe's shirt. "Take your shirt off and let me see how it is healing."

"You'll have to help." Poe set the kit in his lap and peeled the shirt up to his armpits.

Hux lifted it the rest of the way off. Poe couldn't read the list now, since Hux had the light and the ambient twilight wasn't enough. He didn't bother, though. He was tired. Hux said, "The bruising is less." His fingers touched along the sensitive skin very lightly.

"Mm, that's good." Poe let out a heavy breath.

"Is it?"

"Yeah," he said simply.

"It looks like the healing compound has thwarted any infection. I don't know enough about medicine to say more. It's less inflamed." He stroked gently, sideways across Poe's back. "This is good?"

Poe nodded, letting his head sag and his spine bow. His head hurt and he could feel misalignment of the vertebrae in his neck. But the soft strokes were distracting and soothing. He felt his breathing deepening as Hux continued. Hux ran his thumb down Poe's spine and then his palm stroked upward on the uninjured side of his back. Poe shivered. Gooseflesh prickled.

"So much from so little," Hux said, his voice low and soft, little more than a whisper.

Poe made a grateful, pleased noise. Hux continued, petting the top of his far shoulder and the curve of his deltoid before returning to the center of his back. He palmed Poe's neck, pausing under the hairline. He seemed to be waiting for something, or indecisive. "Please," Poe said.

"'Please'," Hux echoed, and though his tone was partly amused, it also sounded … reverent. His careful fingers pushed into Poe's hair. Poe let his head sag further, his eyes shut in quiet bliss. Hux toyed with his hair, fondling it like he'd never felt anything like it before. Poe shifted and something in his neck made a loud 'thunk' noise. "Oh!"

Hux pulled his hand away. "Are you … alright?"

"No, yeah. I'm fine. Fine." Poe turned his head and flexed his neck. Something made a sharper 'ping' noise and most of the pain faded. He slumped again. "Ah … that's good. Better muscle relaxant than any medicine would have been."

"Hm," Hux hummed, returning his hand to stroke Poe's upper back. "I am glad to have been of use."

"It's more than that," Poe murmured. He swiveled to face the man. His gaze went to Hux's lips, then to his eyes. Hux copied him. Poe started to lean forward. Hux's hand, which had slid to his near shoulder when Poe had turned, lifted and moved to Poe's chin. The grip sparked a memory of the last time Hux had touched him like that, while he'd been tied down in the interrogation chair, twitching in pain while Hux gloated. Poe froze.


	6. Rejection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe navigates the asteroid field of Hux's hurt feelings.

Poe pulled back, mouth dry, lips tight. It must have shown on his face, because Hux jerked his hand back like he thought Poe might bite him. For a second, neither acted. Then Hux said in a careful, guarded voice, "Well. Then. You should be able to sleep now."

"Yeah," Poe managed. "Yeah. I- I should be fine. Thank you." He closed the first aid kit slowly, turning away to do it.

"You're welcome," Hux said after a pause.

Poe climbed inside the tiny shelter. He supposed it was sized for two people. It was long enough to stretch out in and barely wide enough for two humans to lay side by side. Height-wise, he could sit up in it, but not stand. Hux stuffed a camp light and one of the thermal blankets (more a piece of thin film sheeting) in after him without comment. Poe laid the blanket flat, listening as Hux found what felt like a half-hour of things to do in the camp before finally joining him. He left the light off.

"You're still awake," Hux said sourly when he entered.

"Waiting for you. Kind of snug in here with both of us," Poe said conversationally as Hux closed the entrance behind him. The fabric wasn't going to keep out monsters, but it would help a lot by simply concealing them.

"It is." Hux regarded the space he had to lie in. "Do you mind?"

"Do I mind what?"

"The proximity. It's not … necessary. Not now."

Poe shrugged. "Looks necessary to me. We either lie close in here, or one of us sleeps outside in the dew, with the bugs and the crabs and the gundarks." Or half-sized gundark. It didn't matter – even these smaller ones were big enough to kill an unarmed human without effort.

Hux laid down and arranged the blanket over both of them. Poe noticed that – 'both of them', as well as Hux's polite and distant tone. Poe tugged the blanket into place over his further side, where Hux couldn't easily reach. "So, no. I don't mind. Do you?"

"It's not something I've had before." He was looking away. For this line, there was a bitter flavor to the politeness.

Poe was on his back. "Not 'had to deal with' or 'had to struggle through' or 'had to put up with'. But just 'had'."

Hux swallowed. He was silent for a bit. "It's not the worst part of being stranded here."

"You like being close like this?"

"Your neck is better. You can sleep now. We both need it." Hux reached up and pulled a cord on the ceiling of the shelter, lowering its profile and changing the venting. It was no longer tall enough to sit up in this way.

"That's not what I was asking."

"Go to sleep." Hux finished adjusting the venting to his liking and laid down on his back. "There's nothing to say."

"No, I think-"

It was too dark to see him, but Poe could imagine Hux's stern expression from the tone of his voice as he partly sat up and said, "Roll over on your side and stop speaking." It was an order.

Reluctantly, Poe faced away. It was the only way he could, given his injured shoulder. Then he understood, or thought he did, when Hux spooned behind him. Hux's knees pressed to the back of Poe's thighs and he felt a brush at his hair. That was all – their other contact was minimal – but it was enough that Poe left everything else unsaid. His question was answered. Sleep came easily.

Poe woke when he was fully rested. He rolled over to his back and appreciated having a pillow, such as it was. The foam pad was only a few centimeters thick, but it was so much better than hard ground or tree trunk. He also appreciated having been able to get through the night without being hypervigilant to every rustle or noise, of which there were so many on this world and he could hear some going on right now.

It was also so much warmer. And he was dry! His clothes were dry. Dew had not settled on them. His body was warm. The air was warm. He was comfortable. It was still humid, but he didn't think they could escape that as long as they were here.

He turned his head to regard Hux, who was lying on his side, facing him. It was morning and there was a grey, diffuse light through the shelter. He wasn't sure if the sun had not yet risen or if it was just cloudy, but there was enough light to see by. Hux's face was soft like this, open and unguarded. It was not a bad face. Poe had reason, again, to wonder about the galaxy's purpose in putting such good looks on someone like Armitage Hux.

He sighed and turned his thoughts to the events of the night before. They'd nearly kissed – both of them, which meant it wasn't just some one-sided mistake of imagining interest where there was none. Hux's words after he'd climbed in the shelter had repeated as much. Hux liked it; maybe, even, liked him. At the very least, Poe wasn't the worst part of being here.

Poe didn't know how to feel about this. Or how he was supposed to feel. He knew what was right, right? The right path was that Hux was evil, had personally ordered him tortured to death a few days ago, and had a history of atrocities behind him. He wasn't like Finn, who'd defected in his first battle, or like Cardinal who'd taught children and had nothing worse in his history than being part of the machine of the First Order. Hux was tainted. Poe should never, ever feel he could trust this man or approve of anything he did.

He sighed again. Hux's lids fluttered open and his face hardened. His expression shuttered, guarded now, as it was nearly all the time. Poe said quietly, "Good morning."

Outside, there was a startled snort, a deep cough, and a clatter of hooves or hard footpads as a dozen or so feet hurried away from the sound of his voice. "This place is full of life," Hux said.

"Better than the alternative. Imagine if we'd been stranded on some lava planet, or salt flats or wind-carved sandstone canyons without even plant life?"

"True. If it can support life, it can support us."

"That's the spirit." Poe swallowed and forged ahead. "Now about last night-"

Hux sat up abruptly, his head catching on the lowered ceiling of the shelter. "No."

"No?"

"I don't want to discuss last night." He pulled the cord that adjusted the ceiling and venting, raising it so his head wasn't bumping the top. "If we can get the pod's comm system to work, then that will settle it. None of this will matter once we're off this planet."

"I … I thought it did matter. Last night."

"No. It did not." Hux unsealed the end and left, leaving Poe lying on his back and rubbing at his face as he grimaced.

"So that's how you want to play it," he grumbled after Hux's retreat. Poe sat up, ran a hand through his hair, and pushed the thermal blanket to the side, along with the last of their shared warmth.

He climbed outside. It began to rain. Poe frowned at the dismal turn of the weather. Hux had the camp stove set up with a pan on it. He was cutting bits of meat from one of the hindquarters and dropping them into the pan. Poe sat on the ground on the opposite side of the stove. "It's like we finally managed to get dry, so the place has to make sure we're wet again."

"It might be helpful," Hux said. "The rain, that is. Perhaps that creature yesterday detected us by the disturbances on the top of the water. The rain might cover our activities."

"Speaking of which," Poe said, "let's talk about those activities. We only have one air tank. I should be the one to go down."

"Why? So you can retrieve the blaster and use it on me?"

Poe slumped. "No. You're a general. How are you going to fix the comm system? Or the power system? Or whatever's not working down there? You've already tried and it didn't work."

"In the dark, holding my breath! That was not a fair test. Also, I'll have you know I was not _always_ a general. I was formally trained as an engineer and my first assignment as a junior officer was in communications. What do you know?" he sneered. "You fly starfighters."

"Right," Poe said patiently. "I grew up in a cockpit. Taking little ships apart. Putting them back together. Modifying them prow to aft, port to starboard. Starfighters, speeder bikes, aircars, pod racers, shuttles. Things just like this escape pod. I even know how to do droid repair." Not a lot, but some, and there was no reason not to exaggerate his abilities. "Remember when I pointed out I knew where the homing beacon probably was? If there's something wrong down there, I can fix it."

"And if you fix it," Hux said acidly, "you'll transmit to your allies and where will that leave me?"

Poe's eyes narrowed and he leaned forward. "What's going to happen to _me_ if _you_ fix it? You're going to transmit on First Order frequencies. Once they're here, you'll either have me shot on sight, or taken aboard ship to finish what you were doing to me before. The best I can hope for is that you'll strand me here, and even then you're going to take all your gear and sabotage the pod!"

Hux pressed his lips together tightly. He stirred the contents of the pan, adding a little water to it.

"Am I wrong?" Poe demanded.

"Your people will do the same."

"They will _not_ ," Poe said staunchly. "I will tell them you helped me and at the first system – first safe system – we come to, we'll drop you off and you can flag down the First Order or do whatever you want."

"'Whatever I want'?"

"I don't know! You don't _have_ to go back. If they think you're dead, then …" Poe shrugged.

"I _would_ go back," Hux said insistently. "I'm loyal. I'm not a … a traitor."

"Okay, fine. Go back." Poe supposed he'd expected too much to hope for different.

"I _would_ ," Hux repeated.

Poe blinked at him, realizing something. "You have doubts."

"I- I do _not_. Why would you even say such a thing?"

"You wouldn't be so defensive if you didn't have doubts."

"You said that more than anything else, you wanted to stop me from … doing whatever to other people. Stop me from continuing as a general in the First Order. Why would you pass up the opportunity to achieve that by preventing me from rejoining them?"

Poe shut his eyes for a long beat and breathed out. "Yeah, I said that." He opened his eyes, meeting Hux's. "And I'd rather you didn't. But it's not my choice to make."

"Yes, it is! It is exactly your choice. If not yours, then whose?"

" _Yours_."

Hux blinked at him repeatedly, then noticed the meat was scorching in the pan he was tending. He picked up what was either a low-rimmed bowl or a high-rimmed plate. He poured the contents of the pan into it and handed it to Poe. Then he handed him a fork.

Poe forced a dry laugh. "We're getting fancy."

Hux dropped the rest of the meat he'd cut up into the pan, added water, and stirred. Probably for his own portion. Poe picked up the fork and scooped up a few pieces of his food. It was different this way and cooked well enough. He supposed Hux had been no happier than he with their culinary experiences thus far. The meat was tough, but the little pieces made it easier to chew.

"Doubts … Doubts don't mean anything," Hux said as he stirred. "It's actions that matter. It's like … being afraid. Or angry. What matters is what you _do_."

Poe nodded. "I agree. Speaking of actions that matter, I should have kissed you last night."

Hux's eyes widened, his skin pinked, and his tone turned icy. "But you did _not_."

"I know," Poe said genuinely. "And I regret that. Can I do it now?"

"No!" Hux got to his feet in agitation. Poe set his fork in his bowl at his feet and spread his hands, empty and in surrender. He stayed sitting as Hux fumed at him, "And I don't believe you about your allies' potential treatment of me! I am a First Order general. If I am not executed immediately, I'll be interrogated or mentally coerced with whatever means you're using to subvert people to your cause. We've noticed the defections. You're doing something to them. You have to be!"

"We're offering them a better life," Poe said dryly. "Sometimes people take us up on that. It's their choice."

Hux shook his head. "I don't believe it. Their programming should be stronger than that. We train these people relentlessly!"

Poe shrugged one shoulder. "Yeah, I'm sure. You talked about it, with your dad. You called him a monster. How did he die again?" Hux swallowed and didn't speak. The air felt fragile between them, like Poe had made it too personal. He reached out and took the pan off the camp stove, stirring it. "Looks like this is done."

"I won't discuss this with you," Hux said, sinking down and taking the pan that Poe offered him. "What's important is to repair the comm system."

"Okay," Poe said agreeably. "We'll talk about the comm system. We only have one air tank. You said fair was the same as right as far as you were concerned."

Hux nodded sullenly as he ate.

Poe went on, "What would be fair is if we _both_ sent out a signal. You go down first. Try to fix it. If you can't, you come back up and give me the air tank. I'll try. First one to fix it sends their signal out. Then they come back up and hand over the tank for the other guy to do the same. Then we see which side gets here first, if either. Who knows? Maybe we'll reach some salvage operation or pirates who aren't on either side."

"How do I know you won't just shoot me once you've made your transmission?"

"You'll go first. You'll have the blaster."

"I'll- You'll know that I have it."

"Uh-huh."

"You trust-?" Hux stopped, confused.

"Yeah, I do. I'm going to." He waited a beat, watching the succession of emotions cross Hux's face: uncertainty, fear, anger, disdain, and then blank. Earnestly, Poe said, "Please don't make me wrong to do that. I want to be able to trust you." Hux did better at hiding his emotions this time, but the nod he gave was uneven.

"Besides," Poe said, "what are the odds the First Order will even send someone? They might think it's a trap or a malfunction. If their system has you logged as dead, won't they ignore any signal that's supposed to be originating from you?" Hux's expression told him the answer was yes.

Poe went on, "And on my side, the Resistance isn't big enough to monitor reliably for that stuff. Sure, they got my signal when I was up there," he pointed to the sky, referring to his capture, "but they were listening for me and that was an encrypted, boosted transmission. I'd say for right now, odds of one out of ten, one out of five _maybe_ that someone would hear me and respond. What do you think it is for you?"

"Better, but … not good."

Poe helped himself to a water pouch. "There's no reason for us to turn on each other once we get the comm system up and running. We _need_ each other. We might need each other for the rest of our lives here. Like you said, it's not the worst thing that could happen here. We can make this work." He dug around in the bag looking for hygiene supplies.

"That …. Rational self-interest," Hux said, "is a persuasive argument."

"Do you agree with the rest? We share this and both transmit?"

"It's fair."

"Then we have a deal." Poe tossed him an extra toiletry pack. Hux picked it up and nodded. Poe pointed at it. "Toothbrush. So when we _do_ end up kissing, it will be nice."

"That- That was not- I might not want to kiss you!" Hux objected, his voice rising an octave.

"That's up to you."

"You have stubble all over your face and you look like a wreck."

"Oh, is _that_ the problem? I can take care of that." Poe scrubbed a hand over his jawline, then looked in the kit. "Is there a razor in here?"


	7. Victories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Several winning conditions are achieved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: leeches.

They approached the crash site carefully, but saw nothing aside from the usual plentiful mix of non-threatening wildlife. Once they were at the water's edge, Poe used the thermal setting on the quadnocs to scan the waters.

"See anything?" Hux had left his top layer of clothes back at the camp, where they'd be dry and not exposed to the ongoing rain. He was standing on one foot, picking at the closure mechanism to take off his boot.

"Nope," Poe answered. "But these 'nocs only picks up a meter or so down, and even then only if it's warm-blooded."

"Technically," Hux said, "if it's surface temperature is markedly different than the environment." He set his boots and socks down next to a tree and fiddled with the straps for the air tank. It was positioned on his chest.

"Yeah, I know that," Poe said with a roll of his eyes. "It's the same thing."

"No, it's not," Hux said, but he sounded amused rather than argumentative. "It could have blubber or some other type of thick, insulating tissue. You don't know. You said yourself you didn't check what it looked like through infrared yesterday."

"Are you just arguing with me to argue?"

"Perhaps."

Poe gave him a side-eye, then laughed. He lowered the quadnocs. "Well, I don't see anything. You going in anyway? Last chance to let me take the hit – if the thing's out there."

"I'm going in." Hux was finished with his adjustments and held the breather next to his mouth. "I'll be down about five minutes, then return to warm up and rest. We can discuss what I've found when I come back."

Poe nodded. "Make sure and check yourself for leeches. I got some kind of bite on my leg last time I was in the water there."

Hux nodded as well. He inserted the breather and turned on the camp light he'd brought with him. He waded out and disappeared into the dark water. The ripples faded off into the distance, broken up by the patter of rain.

There was nothing else to see, so Poe turned his attention to the ground. His father had been an excellent tracker, almost super-human according to some, and he'd shown Poe the basics several times. Poe couldn't say he'd learned much from it, but he'd learned some. He quickly found where Hux had pulled the air tank out of the mud the day before. It was roughly where he'd dropped it (and the box with the other tank). But there was no other tank there, or a box.

To Poe's right was shoreline, pocked and marked with the heavy footprints of the creature that had threatened them – but not _many_ footprints. Poe moved over the area slowly. The creature had never settled here and it hadn't walked through here much. Also, there was no box or tank within flinging or kicking distance, nor any obvious reason why the monster would have taken the equipment further away.

He returned to where they'd found the first tank. To his left was where the food bag had been and beyond that was a wallow where the monster had rested. This was where Hux had found the breather mask, embedded in the mud and only visible by a protruding tube. Meaning it had laid on it and worked it into the mud. He could see Hux's tracks in and out of the area. It was otherwise undisturbed.

The box and tank were not beyond the wallow on the ground. And again, there was no reason to think they'd be intentionally concealed. That left two places for it: the wallow or the water. Poe's bet was against the water, because they'd found the breather in the wallow. He went to the start of the wallow, the driest part, and began to work toward the wetter end. He pressed his fingers into the mud one section at a time, like a quadrant-by-quadrant search pattern.

He found the box a handspan away from where Hux had pulled the breather from the muck. The second air tank was still in it! He moved into the water to wash it off. Like the one Hux had recovered yesterday, the breather was impacted with mud. He swished it through the water and dug at the obstruction, cleaning it out. Hux had been out quite a while now. Had it been five minutes? How was Hux telling time and was he generally accurate about such things? Poe scanned the water.

That was when Poe saw it – he didn't initially see the monster, but there was a long-legged grey bird standing atop it, looking from Poe's perspective like it was either standing on the water itself or something just a centimeter or two under the surface. Seeing the bird, he spotted the monster's eyes where they protruded at the surface a meter or so in front of it. It was an ambush predator and at the moment being used as a mobile platform for a bird that likely hunted the same way. Poe hoped that meant a prepared enemy could deter it. Hux didn't know it was coming, though.

Poe had an air tank. He also had a fraction of a second to realize this gave him options, and in less time than that he had discarded those options as things he would not do. What he did instead, was dash forward and dive, sucking in air before he went. He kicked furiously. The creature had been moving slowly and the pod was not far from Poe. The water was murky, though, and he barely avoided plowing himself into the mud.

He kept kicking, taking a moment to jam the breather into his mouth (it was upside down, he flipped it) and free one hand to hold out in front of himself for obstacles. He tried to pull in air. There was nothing and he almost sucked in water through his nose before realizing. He fumbled at the valve on the top of the tank. Nothing changed.

He caught a glint of light up ahead and oriented on it, kicking hard. The edges of the rear hatch of the pod loomed up around him. He swam inside. Hux spun at his entry. The console lights were off, but he had one open and the floor grates were all lifted and set aside. Hux himself was oddly luminous in the light, just like the white bags had been the way before when they rose through the dark water. His gold-orange hair halo'd his face.

But Poe didn't have air or time to admire. He pointed at the breather, then the tank. Hux nodded calmly, too calmly considering there was a monster outside and Poe was running out of air. With more agitation, Poe indicated them again and crossed both hands over his throat like he was choking himself. Hux got the message. He moved forward and fiddled with the few controls on the valve, which were mostly manual. Air began flowing seconds later.

A dark form crossed in front of the viewport of the pod. Poe wheeled and grabbed at the manual controls for the hatch. It had not opened easily. And as it turned out, it did not close easily, either. Hux came up next to him, looking at what he was doing. With agitation again, Poe made a closing gesture with his hands and pointed at the handle he was trying to rotate.

There really wasn't room for two people on the handle. Hux put his hands on the lip of the hatch door, bracing his legs above it so he could push downward, in the direction the door should shut. With Poe turning the handle, it closed to halfway before the great pointed maw of the thing burst through the remaining opening, snapping and twisting.

Hux kicked off immediately in full retreat to the other side of the pod. It bought him seconds, if that. The monster shoved through the hatch, flinging it open, and pursued him, having either not seen Poe or simply decided it would eat Hux first. It lunged across the pod at the general, who had taken what cover there was behind the pilot's seat. A red light flashed once and then a second time.

Poe jumped on the beast's back having no idea what he was going to do. He was bare-handed and had never had a chance to properly strap his air tank to himself. It tore from his mouth as he climbed its body and grabbed for its eyes. Red light flashed again and then again, but he didn't know what it meant.

The beast didn't resist as he grabbed the protruding eyes on their short stalks and yanked them, tearing flesh but not removing them entirely. They were too slippery. The beast didn't even react. Poe paused. A red stain was spreading through the water.

He pressed his back to the pod's ceiling and shoved the creature with his legs. It floated away to the side, dead. Hux was under it and looking unharmed. His breather mask was off. He put it back in with his left hand. In his right was his blaster pistol.

Hux looked at Poe and pointed to his own mask. Poe looked around the pod and shrugged. He had no idea where his tank had gone. Hux was next to him then and touched him. Poe turned back. Hux offered his breather to Poe. After a beat, Poe took it, sucking in several deep breaths before handing it back and then pushing off to search for his own. He found it just outside the pod, having been kicked out and then sank to the bottom. Processed air had never tasted so good.

The two of them shoved the rubbery body of the monster outside, where it began to float slowly toward the surface. Poe pointed up. Hux nodded. They both rose and broke the surface, spitting out their breathers.

Hux laughed. "Well, that one is done for!"

Poe chuckled, less amused but still happy. He shook wet hair out of his face. "Yeah, are you alright?"

"I have some scratches and bruises from where I was jammed under the console. That's all. You?

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Blood in the water and another carcass to worry about. We should swim this one out further and then do the rest of our operations with the hatch shut."

"Sounds good. Were you getting anywhere on getting that to work?"

"Not yet. I think I have an idea of where the problem is. The frame, the superstructure of the pod is bent. It's why the hatch is difficult."

"Okay. Let's get rid of this thing." Together, they pushed the creature out into deeper water and hoped the body would keep heading that way. They swam back and went to shore to rest and talk.

After sitting for a few moments, Hux said, "You had an air tank."

"Yeah."

"You knew the monster was coming for me."

"Yeah."

"Were you unable to make the tank work without help?"

"No, it worked. Or would have. I just didn't have time. I saw that thing and it was- There wasn't enough time to finish getting the tank set up. You didn't know it was coming."

"No, I didn't. I hadn't thought to shut the rear hatch."

"You probably couldn't have, by yourself."

"True. Are you claiming a life debt?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because we're on the same side now. Life debts don't count when you're saving your friends. Only when it's strangers, or enemies."

"We're enemies."

"Hux, we're sleeping together. We're not enemies."

"Just because we shared the same tent doesn't mean we're … A barracks full of soldiers is technically 'sleeping together' and it doesn't mean _that_!"

Poe grinned at how flustered the implication had made Hux. His face had even pinked up. That was cute. Poe pointed out, "They're not enemies, either."

"Fine. Poor example. If-"

"I'm not claiming a life debt," Poe interrupted to reiterate.

"But to my point …"

"You have one?"

"Yes, I do. Shut up! You had an air tank. Why didn't you just let that creature kill me?"

Poe was still grinning. "Am I supposed to shut up or answer you?"

Hux snorted. "You could have had it all! With me gone, the gear would be yours. The thing would have been sated with me for long enough for you to fix the pod and send whatever transmission you wanted. You don't need me for the repairs. You don't need me for anything now!"

Poe leaned in and cupped the sides of Hux's face, his fingers over the wiry sideburns. The man tensed like he expected the next move to be a head butt. But he didn't pull away. He just blinked uncertainly, frozen in place. "I need you for this," Poe said, then turned his head and kissed him.

Poe wasn't terribly surprised that Hux remained frozen at first. He expected that. He was waiting for any sign of rejection or displeasure. His hands were light on the sides of Hux's face. His lips were moderate in pressure. Hux finally began breathing again and kissed him back. Hux was hesitant and uncertain, but definitely willing.

Poe pulled away, his lids heavy and his mind only now catching up to the implications of doing this. As he started to move away, Hux snagged his forearm. Poe stopped. Hux pulled him back slowly and kissed him in return, slow, encompassing, and complete. He hadn't had enough.

Poe guided him to the ground with their lips never parting. Hux was on his back with Poe leaning over him. They kissed like they had all the time in the world. Hux's eyes slid shut and eventually Poe's did as well. His free hand cupped the side of Hux's face, then the side of his neck, his shoulder – bare, wet skin under his hand. Hux found his hand and fumbled with it like he wanted to hold or caress it but couldn't figure out how he wanted to do it. They entwined fingers finally.

"That is a," Hux searched for words as the fingers of his free hand ticklishly skimmed Poe's lips, "thoroughly ridiculous reason."

Poe shrugged. "It's true." He wanted to add it wasn't the craziest thing he'd ever done … but that probably _wasn't_ true. He nipped a fingertip. Hux jerked them back uncertainly, relaxing a moment later when Poe leaned over, lips pursed, and kissed the offended digit.

Hux sat up. "We should get the comm system to working."

"Yeah." Poe looked him up and down. Soaking wet, in mud-stained underwear, in a swamp wasn't the most romantic way to have a first kiss. Maybe whoever rescued them would have a nice, dry, civilized cabin they could share. He shook off the thought and got back to business. "I saw you had panels open. What had you found?"

"All of the online power systems had discharged and although escape pods have redundant auxiliaries, they were decoupled during some stage of the journey. We should be able to manually reattach them if we can find the right cabling."

"We can just cannibalize off the main power system."

"Good thought. I hadn't reached that far, as I was still trying to confirm the easiest auxiliary to get to was charged."

"Okay. Sounds like we have a plan, then."

"And we shut the rear hatch after we enter."

Poe nodded his agreement. They waded out until the water was at their shoulders, then put in the breathers and dove. The water had cleared somewhat, enough so Poe could see scores of short, ribbon-like dark squiggles squirming through the water. Despite his best efforts, a handful of them attached themselves to him. He swatted at them, which only gave time for more of them to attach. Realizing that and seeing Hux had already made it to the hatch, he hurried on. It itched where the leeches clung to him.

They stood out starkly on Hux's skin, but Hux was ignoring them. He pointed at the lever to manually shut the door and took up the position he'd had before to help close the hatch. Together, they got it to snap shut, leaving them in darkness. Hux turned on the light. He held it close to one of the things attached to his knee, examining it. He looked at Poe with a concerned expression.

Poe raised one finger at him in a 'wait' gesture, then cupped his hand on the back of Hux's knee. He scraped his thumbnail across Hux's skin where the head of the leech would be if this were the same vermin that existed in the swamps of Yavin IV. It released, still hanging on by a pair of rear suckers or hooks. He smashed it between thumb and forefinger and left it dangling. He moved on to the next one, methodically removing them. Then Hux did the same for him. They pulled off the dead ones and left them to settle near the hatch.

By then, he had noticed they had two fish trapped in the pod with them, but the bony, finned creatures didn't want any part of them. One was about the length of his forearm. The other the size of his hand. They stayed together like a mated pair. They kept to the opposite side of the pod from them. They could be let out later, but for now, he didn't want to risk letting in more leeches.

Getting the comm system working took longer than he'd expected. The situation was exacerbated by neither of them having any applicable sign language. Poe knew how to signal ground crew and other pilots, and how to order a handful of different drinks in a particular noisy bar, but neither of those were useful here. They finally got it so the board was lighting up in the murky water and the screen indicated they could transmit.

Poe scrolled through a few options on the screen to make sure it was functioning. It was, which meant it was Hux's turn now. Hux stuck his head out from under the console and Poe gave him a thumb's up, then pointed at the hatch and upward. Hux nodded and made a 'wait' gesture to him. He reached into an open compartment on the starboard side and produced the blaster rifle Poe had entered the pod with days ago.

Hux proffered it to him. Poe hesitated, then put his hand over Hux's on it, the two of them just hanging in the water, watching each other and being in no hurry. Hux reached up to hold the rifle with his other hand, turned the one Poe was holding, and pressed the rifle into his hand. Poe nodded slowly. Hux went to his position at the hatch.

Poe drew in a deep pull from the breather. Well. Hux had put a weapon in his hand after all. He slung it over his shoulder by the strap and went to the handle next to the door. They returned to shore.

Poe spit out his breather as they reached shallower water. "There weren't this many leeches yesterday!"

"Blood in the water," Hux said, as he'd said earlier.

Poe sighed. It was true, he supposed. He sat down on a flattish area of muddy shore to pick off his newest parasitic acquisitions. Hux sat next to him and drew his knife. Poe said, "Don't stab them. Or cut them. You have to get them to let go themselves or they tear out a chunk."

Hux grunted. "At least there were fewer this time."

"Yeah." He moved to check Hux's back and backside, then turned his back to Hux. "Do I have any back there?"

"One." Hux removed it. "By necessity, the message that is sent out from the pod will have to be in text."

"Yeah. While you were making those last hookups, I tried to get the repulsors to work. No dice on the control panel. I'd have to open up other compartments to find out why they aren't responding. I think we should send our signals today, soon as we can, and then tomorrow work on getting the pod out of the muck and up here on solid ground. We'll need somewhere dry to sleep if the rains keep going."

"It will make a decent shelter if we can get it out. If you can fly it out of there, can you maneuver it well enough to get it to the clearing?"

Poe nodded. "Should be able to." A few moments passed. It had stopped raining, but moisture still plinked off branches and into the water. One of the eye-stalked frogs floundered in a puddle off to one side before righting itself. Poe flung a dead leech toward it. Its eyestalks wobbled as they switched between him and the leech. Eventually, it moved forward and ate it, flipping its tongue forward to seize it much like the amphibians Poe was more familiar with.

Hux chuckled. Poe lobbed another one at it, sending it three more to devour before it stumble-jumped away through the vegetation, either full or just having a short attention span. Dead leech in hand, Poe watched to see if it would come back. It didn't. "So, um," Poe said finally, gesturing out at the water and tossing the leech aside, "you want me to come in with you or do you want to send it alone?"

"Send what?" Hux asked. "The transmission to the First Order, telling them I'm here and want to be rescued?"

"Yeah."

"No. I've changed my mind. I'm not sending it."


	8. Salvation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is it really rescue when it feels like leaving the frying pan for the fire?

"What?" Poe asked, flabbergasted.

"I'm not sending it. Send one to your Resistance allies."

"Wait, what? Why?"

"So they can come pick you up."

"But, I mean …" Poe shook his head. "I mean, yeah, but why aren't you sending one to the Order?"

"I lost my own capital ship. I can't even explain why. All I have is conjectures. It wasn't in battle against insurmountable odds – just a few x-wings whose strafing runs couldn't be borne without shields, and raising shields overtaxed whatever delicate equilibrium we had in the power system."

"Did you send out fighters?" The strategic breakdown didn't matter much, but it helped him visualize the chain of events.

"Yes, of course I did! But I also raised the shields. It's standard procedure and I didn't know it would cascade into destroying the entire ship!"

"Okay. Got it." He wondered what had happened to the stranded TIE pilots while he and Hux had been stuck planetside. He supposed they'd been rescued along with whoever picked up the escape pods. Or maybe the x-wings had finished them off. Seemed kind of uncharitable once the destroyer had gone up. X-wings had hyperdrives. TIEs usually did not.

Hux huffed. "That would be a career-ending situation for most. But it's not all. I lost Starkiller Base. A dreadnought over D'Qar. I was the fleet commander over Crait and we lost seventeen destroyers there, give or take a few, depending on one's definition of 'lost'. And of course, the _Supremacy_ itself was under my direct command when it was split." He looked at Poe. "The only reason they'd want me back is to make an example of what comes to such incompetence."

"Um …" Well, that _was_ a damning record, but it wasn't like Poe didn't have a few horrific mistakes on his own. He'd also been (cough, cough) responsible for inflicting most of those on Hux's career. "Wouldn't that be up to Kylo Ren?"

Hux shrugged. "He hasn't been taking much of a hand in anything that's not Force-related. Snoke was much the same. I'm dead to them all now. I have had time to consider the political ramifications. The High Command will not re-instate me. And I will not stand to be demoted, court-martialed, or otherwise made into a scapegoat for the Hosnian system. I am _done_."

Poe wiped at his face, trying to process this. It wasn't _entirely_ out of the blue, but he hadn't expected this quick a turn. "Are you … defecting?"

Hux scowled. "I'm telling you to send your transmission. As you said, there's little chance they'll get it. But you may as well try."

"Is this because I kissed you?"

"Go!" Hux pointed toward the water. "I may yet change my mind."

"Okay." Poe stood, grinning. "Can I kiss you again?"

"If you must."

Poe knelt. "I must," he said softly. He gave Hux a lingering kiss and then waded out, adjusting the breather as he went. A few moments later, Hux followed. He stood guard while Poe typed in his message and sent it out as far as the pod's system could throw it. He hoped it was enough.

Once back on shore (and leeches removed), Poe said, "You sure you don't want to, you know, at least double our chances of rescue?"

"It's not 'rescue' if they're going to kill one of us and court-martial then execute the other."

They started walking away. "Okay. You seem really certain of that. But if they didn't end your career for all that other stuff, then why would they now?"

"Because I wasn't declared dead after 'all that other stuff'. I don't have an entire star destroyer of moderately loyal officers backing me up. By now, I'm _out_. To bring me back will require explanations and paperwork and it would be a great deal easier just to have me quietly go back to being dead. It wouldn't even be murder. You don't understand the politics of the Order. Sometimes the best strategic decision is to avoid the conflict altogether."

He sounded bitter and angry and like he was trying to convince himself of his reasons. Poe reached out and took his hand. Hux looked at him attentively. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to give you affection and support."

Hux looked down at their joined hands. He didn't let go. "I don't need it."

"I'm going to give it anyway."

Hux squeezed his hand slightly, shifting his grip to something more comfortable. But he didn't let go.

Back in camp, Hux was quiet and spent his time gathering firewood. Poe tried the amino acid profiler on some likely plant choices. Most came back as technically edible (meaning he wouldn't die from eating them), but not nutritious (meaning they would taste like recycled fiber). Others weren't even that. He had a meal bar for dinner instead. Neither of them trusted the remaining meat from the gundark-thing, which had begun to smell bad. Hux carried the stinking legs away from camp on one of his trips to get wood.

"Wait," Poe said when Hux returned, "what am _I_ going to do?"

Hux looked at him like he was daft. "What do you mean, 'what are you going to do'?"

Poe brushed away the feeling that he really should have thought about this an hour or so earlier. "If the Resistance picks us up, and we drop you off somewhere, what am I going to do?"

"Go off and fight in the Resistance, I suppose." Hux bent and washed his hands in the pool.

"But … would you come with me?"

"You mean, will I take up arms against the First Order and help kill the people I served with?"

"Um … yeah."

Hux sat near him, taking the meal bar Poe extended to him. "What has Finn done?"

"Um … took up arms against the First Order."

"What?" Hux looked confused. Poe shrugged. Hux asked, "He's killed members of the Order? Intentionally?"

"Yeah. Ten or twenty maybe. I haven't really kept track."

Hux swallowed in revulsion. "That's disgusting. So much for his conditioning."

Poe shrugged again. "You conditioned him to be a killer. He is. Just somewhere along the line, you lost control of who he was killing. Or why. Now he makes his own decisions."

Hux rolled his eyes. "Well, fine. The answer is _no_ , I will not join you in fighting the First Order. I have more morals than that. I thought he defected for ideological reasons. Turns out he's just a traitor through and through."

"Hey, don't say bad things about Finn. He's my friend."

"Fine. Drop me off somewhere, if it comes up, and go back to the Resistance to be with your 'friend'."

Poe smiled tightly at this indication of jealousy and wiped his mouth to conceal it. "No. I … think I'd like to come with you."

"What of the Resistance?"

"They'll get by without me. But where are you going to go? What will you do?"

"I have no idea. If I can live here," he cast a hand at their surroundings, "if you can call this living, then I can live on most worlds. Or here, if your rescuers are unwilling to take me with you. Assuming there are such 'rescuers'."

"Yeah," Poe said with a sigh. "Well, if there are, we're both going."

"You might not have a say in that."

"No, I will. Unless they stun me and drag me off unconscious, it's either both of us or neither."

Hux nodded slowly. He reached out and took Poe's hand almost furtively. They sat together quietly for a while, until Poe asked, "Is there any way that escape pod can regain orbit?"

"No."

"Huh. How much power do you think is left in the auxiliary systems?"

"Not enough for that. We could manage short flights, but lifting that much mass in this sort of gravity field will burn through what fuel we have quickly. They're not designed for extensive maneuvers."

"Yeah," Poe said, "that's what I was afraid of." They spent the rest of the evening drawing diagrams in the dirt and planning out their repairs for the next day. When it was dark, they climbed in the shelter. Hux sealed it behind them and turned the camp light on low. As they stretched out on the floor, Poe said, "Ah, we're alone again together." He stroked Hux's forearm – the one without the knife scabbard.

Hux huffed. "We're always alone together here. That's the essence of being stranded." He moved a knee between Poe's and scooted closer, insinuating one arm under Poe's. He watched Poe's face with the sharp attention of one who expected to be turned away.

Poe drew him close and kissed him. "Lucky for us, then." He kissed him again.

When they parted a second time, Hux asked, "Why did you pull away last night?"

"I remembered you taking my chin when I was in the interrogation chair. Not a good memory."

"Am I to take from your kisses today and your expression of regret this morning that you had a change of heart?"

"I guess so. I didn't really think it through. It's just how I feel." He leaned forward and kissed Hux briefly before Hux pulled back.

"That seems rather changeable." Hux's brows drew together in concern.

"I'm of the point of view that a person shouldn't overthink their feelings. You should trust them instead."

"I hadn't even made my choice yet not to return to the Order. You had feelings even then?"

"Yes."

"What would you have done had I not left them?"

Poe sighed. "That's thinking a little further forward than I was doing. I've been more concerned with staying alive day to day. If the First Order shows up, I'll figure it out then."

Hux snorted softly. "If they were, they would have already."

"Then we're free."

Hux seemed amused by that. He stroked Poe's shoulder with the fascination of someone who didn't get to touch other people much. Poe kissed him again. They embraced. They touched and held and stroked one another. That was the extent of it. Poe was content to fall asleep in Hux's arms.

The next morning went swiftly, consumed with work that ended in early afternoon when Poe set down the drained and somewhat operational escape pod in the tall grass of the clearing. It smelled of lake water and burned circuits, but since both of them did as well, it didn't seem that bad. Hux said, "I'll check our gear," and left through the rear hatch, which had been stuck open all day. It was on the list of things that needed to be fixed.

They'd replaced all the floor hatches and the control panels needed for flying the thing, but the ones for environmental controls and communications were still stowed off to the side. The air recyclers would probably take days to dry out enough to use and there wasn't much point in having the comm system on. Neither of them had a communicator and there wasn't anyone else on this rock to talk to.

Still. There might be soon. Poe picked up the panel and gave it a shake to knock off any stray drops of water, then popped it back into socket. Lights came on and then off, which was normal when power was restored. Two lights stayed on, blinking. He popped it back out, shook it again, dried the contacts, and blew on the sockets it fit into. Components regularly worked fine while sealed, but once opened to the elements, they could get finicky about environmental factors. He put it back in. Same thing.

He started to repeat the process, then realized which lights were on. The pod was registering an incoming signal. He tried to bring it up, but the screen showed only static and the audio produced nothing at all. Was it just a malfunction? Or was it real? "Hey, Hux! Come here! You said you served as a comm officer, right?"

Hux came in. He'd put his clothes back on (they'd worked underwater in only underwear again). He was carrying his boots and socks. "Yes?"

"Look at this. Tell me what that is." Poe stepped aside.

Hux tried different settings, but the screen remained fuzzed. "It's just water," he said. "Must have contaminated one of the contacts when we pulled it out to get at the controls for the maneuvering jets. Let's pull it out and dry it." He touched the two blinking lights and shot Poe an uncertain look. He knew what those lights meant.

"I already tried that." They did it anyway. Hux took a sock and dried several circuit receivers. They put it back in. Lights came on, went out, the blinking continued. The screen lit up clear this time.

Hux tapped controls. His expression flattened. He turned to Poe, his face grave. "You know where I've been. I swear. I did not signal them."

"What?" He resisted the urge to look at the screen for himself. He looked at Hux instead. "Who?" Poe heard the distant whine of well-maintained engines. His stomach sank. He glanced in the direction of the sound, but as of yet there was nothing to see. He answered his own question: "The First Order."

"I did _not_ signal them."

He turned back to Hux. "I know. I know, babe." He kissed him. Hux kissed him back fiercely. When they parted, Poe said, "I'd rather be shot wearing clothes than not, so I'll go get dressed."

Hux straightened as some inspiration struck him. "Yes! Yes, that's it! Get dressed!"

"Okay …" Poe hesitated. "Can you let me in on the secret?"

"You're a member of the First Order now. You're part of the bridge security detail. You lost your armor. I'll have your number."

"Oh. Um. Okay."

"Go!"

Poe hurried out and donned the body sleeve, remembering how he hadn't been challenged in the halls due to the similarity to other garments. It might work, he supposed, if they didn't look too close at his boots. The _Finalizer_ had a crew of thousands. How many had evacuated before the explosion? How many had been recovered and by whom? Would Hux be able to pick someone who wasn't already accounted for? Poe's other choice was to stay here with the gundarks and the leeches. Alone.

The ship that set down was short, stubby, and unless Poe missed his mark, did not possess hyperdrive engines. He couldn't see the rear of it, but it looked like a standard short-flight shuttle. A rock-hopper; only one step up from a puddle-jumper. He grimaced. He'd been hoping for something they could steal, but if they stole this, it would be a short flight.

One officer and someone else in a puffy black (was it a pilot's outfit?) jumpsuit came down the extended ramp and spoke with Hux, who had put his boots on and looked surprisingly presentable. Poe tried to think of what he was supposed to do for this role Hux had slapped on him. He rubbed some mud over his boots and picked up the blaster rifle they'd recovered from the pod. He wandered over. All three of them glanced his way.

"We leave the gear," Hux said to him. "They'll take us back."

"Cool. I mean, Yes, sir."

Hux scowled at him. "The time for relaxed formalities has passed, trooper."

"Yes sir," Poe said more briskly. Hux followed the other two up the ramp and Poe followed him. No one took his rifle away from him, which meant they really did seem to buy the deception. He took a seat in the comfortably processed air of the narrow cabin, watching the planet fall away under them with a smoothness he envied. The First Order had such lovely ships.

Hux was giving numbers to the officer and explaining that his code cylinder had been cannibalized for parts to start a fire. The officer was inputting things. They spoke back and forth for several minutes. Hux's attitude was haughty. The officer's was … wary, Poe decided was the right term. The only other crew member was the pilot. The outfit was different from that of TIE pilots because it didn't incorporate the standard helmet or other gear needed for survival in the vacuum of space.

The interior of the shuttle was unremarkable and Poe could not yet see the ship they were undoubtedly bearing toward, so he turned his attention to the conversation. "I'm sorry, sir," the officer was telling Hux, "but the crew member with that designation has been rescued. This … cannot be him." Poe gave his best innocent face and quietly clicked his rifle over to stun.

"Oh, well," Hux hedged, moving between the officer and the muzzle of Poe's rifle. "They all look alike. Try AF-6534." Poe let the barrel of his weapon dip so it wasn't pointed at either of them. Apparently, Hux wasn't a fan of hijacking the shuttle.

The officer input the designation and shook her head. "That one was reported deceased. Was that in error?"

Hux sighed. "I saw the bridge crew evacuate myself. No one was left behind. How did he die?"

"I-" The officer pursed her lips and looked at her screen for a moment. "Decompression."

"Was there a pod malfunction?" Hux asked.

"I don't know," the officer said. "But I need his serial number before we dock." She indicated Poe.

Poe opened his mouth and then shut it. It was bizarre that the officer wasn't asking _him_. She acted like he didn't exist. He could see the ship they were headed to now, coming up in the viewport. It was a heavy cruiser – not a patch on a star destroyer, but still a big ship. Hux said, "There was another. He was on the off-shift, but I'd sounded battle stations. AL-8922."

She typed that in. "Well, there's no entry for him."

Hux turned to Poe. "Are you AL-8922?"

"Yes sir," Poe said, struggling and largely failing to keep a straight face, especially as he could see the pilot smirking behind the two officers.

"You can't tell them apart when they're on duty," Hux said to the officer in a lamenting tone. She nodded, commiserating. Another smirk from the pilot, which disappeared with practiced timing when the officers turned back. Poe was starting to like the pilot. Maybe it was a good thing he hadn't shot any of these people yet.

He wondered how it was believable that having been stranded on a deserted planet for days, Hux still didn't know Poe's designation. Was he assumed to have just called him 'you there' or 'trooper' for the duration? But apparently it _was_ believable. At least for now. The officer transmitted the documentation she'd filled out and spoke through the comm confirming the rescue. The pilot had her own conversation, being directed to 'the' hangar bay, confirming Poe's expectation that there was only one such hangar on the cruiser.

It was a busy space, with the ceiling racks packed with TIEs and the floor featuring two full-sized shuttles, a transport or small freighter, some slender-profiled private ship, and miscellaneous cargo, munitions, and fuel stacked in between the parking lanes. No walkers, tanks, or other ground mech. They set down on a small landing pad and were met by a security detachment of four stormtroopers, one of whom had a white pauldron with black marks around the edge. If Poe's memory served him right, that was a sergeant.

The one with the pauldron told Hux, "Sir. You are to be detained pending review and release by the ship commander, Captain Rynelle."

Hux nodded. "I see. I need a new uniform."

The sergeant hesitated. "I'll inform the security chief of your request."

Another of the troopers reached for Poe's rifle. "I'll take that." Poe didn't let go, feeling like a pivotal moment was here and about to pass them by. At that second, he was armed, Hux was armed, and they were standing in the hangar with hyperdrive capable ships all around them.

If they were to escape, this was the moment, but the odds were woefully against them – two normal human beings against the four in the security detail, the officer and pilot from the shuttle, and anyone else nearby who might join in. Not to mention that the ship he might choose might not be ready for immediate flight. At a glance, there was no way to tell which needed warm-up or fueling or might even be off-line for maintenance. Poe looked down at the hand on his weapon and grimaced.


	9. Infiltration and Exfiltration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ah, the old 'in and out'!

The trooper tugged the rifle out of his hands. The one with the pauldron collected Hux's pistol. They were separated then, with Hux led away by a pair of troopers and the other two taking Poe along a different corridor. He hadn't been given binders and they weren't acting like he was a prisoner. The two troopers were relaxed. One of them asked, "So how was it down there?"

"Muggy," Poe answered, trying to fake a little bit of an imperial accent. "I wouldn't recommend it as a shore leave destination."

They both laughed. Just outside the hangar, they turned through doors labeled 'Decontamination'. One of the troopers pointed at the first of several small circles on the floor. "Stand there for scanning." Poe did. A faint light played over him. He could see the same screen the trooper was looking at, where his biometrics were displayed. "Do you have parasites or any urgent medical needs?"

"No," Poe answered.

The trooper pressed a button and indicated the showers to the right of the scanning area. They had transparent doors and no privacy. "Clothes go in the bin. When you're done cleaning, stand on the circle to the right for irradiation and drying. No reason to hurry. We'll need to requisition some clothes."

Poe followed directions. He was far from a prude and he was used to communal facilities in the military, but he was starting to clue in to where Hux's lack of body consciousness came from. No one watched him. He took his time cleaning off the stench of brackish lake water, smoke, mud, blood, and whatever other unlovely scents he'd accumulated planetside. By the time he was done, new clothes had been put on a shelf inside the door, including boots.

He was glad he'd left his necklace on, because they took away his dirty clothes, blaster included. But his old boots were left sitting on a desk next to the door he'd come in through. There was only one stormtrooper waiting, standing next to them. The man gestured at the boots. "What're these?"

"Boots?"

"They're not regulation. Where'd you get them?"

"Ah, hm. Long story, but uh … from a dead Rebel."

The trooper's helmet tilted.

Poe elaborated. "When the alerts sounded, the lights went off and I grabbed them out of my locker in the dark. I forgot I'd left my regular boots next to the bed." He hoped stormtroopers had lockers to keep personal possessions in. Did they even _have_ personal possessions?

The trooper shook his head. "Is it true what they say about the _Finalizer_ crew being bone collectors?"

"Uh … I … You mean human bones?"

"Yeah."

"Not that I'm certain of," Poe said slowly, not sure what the right answer was. Truthfully, he'd never heard of First Order personnel taking trophies. Robbing people, confiscating stuff? Sure.

"You never know about other ships. Anyway, keeping some dead guy's boots is morbid and illegal. You're not allowed to have them." With that, he picked them up and tossed them in a hazardous waste disposal bin.

"Yeah, well, they fit a little better than these." Poe pointed at the ones he'd been given.

"What's wrong with those?"

"Too narrow. Pinch a bit."

The trooper shrugged. "Complain to someone who cares."

Poe nodded and kept his mouth shut.

"Come on. Next we go to labor resources."

He was led toward the center of the ship, still on the same lower level. They went through a door that revealed a large room, most of which was blocked off by a desk not far from the door. Other desks were further back with various techs referencing screens. There was a crudely-taped X on the floor in front of the front desk. "Stand there," said the trooper. The person behind the desk was in an officer's uniform. From the rank markings, Poe was pretty sure she was a lieutenant.

The trooper told the lieutenant. "This is 2-AL-8922- …" He turned to Poe. "What was your creche number?"

"Oh, it's been a long time, I don't remember," Poe said, guessing that the two letter, four number sequence wasn't the entire serial number for a stormtrooper. For one thing, he had apparently gained a two at the start of it.

The trooper made a rude noise. "You forgot?" he said in a mix of disgust and bewilderment. The lieutenant just laughed.

"Everyone just called me Al," Poe said.

"Just like the other ten thousands AL's?"

"I was the Al-est of them," Poe said with confidence, deciding to own the lie and having no idea why there might be ten thousand people whose designations started with AL.

The lieutenant punched numbers in her system, bringing up a holoimage of an ID card over the desk. Next to the picture of a man who wasn't Poe was an ID number: 2-AL-8922-29. Poe was lucky in the random way of things that the man's appearance _basically_ matched – skin tone wasn't far off, no scars or identifying marks, the picture showed a dark stubble of head hair and dark eyes. But it still wasn't him. He wondered if the others Hux had tried to use for his identity had been better matches.

She looked at the picture, looked again, and then looked at Poe. She looked at his hair. There was no way that was regulation. This was going to be tougher than the boots. Poe felt himself start to sweat.

"How long were you on that planet?" she asked in disbelief.

"A few days. Felt like forever." That wasn't going to fly and he knew it. He needed a story, fast. "I know what you're looking at. My hair has always grown crazy fast. They skipped me last cycle on the hair cut because of an equipment malfunction and … uh, I thought it didn't matter under my helmet and then there was the alarm …" He played up his fear instead of trying to hide it.

"This guy's a weirdo," put in the trooper. "I'm thinking he needs a medical evaluation."

"Definitely," the lieutenant said, turning back to her screen and tapping in numbers. "And a grooming session." She gave Poe a narrow-eyed look, "What was your duty station again?"

Poe pulled himself a bit more to attention. " _Finalizer_ bridge security, sir! I was on sleep cycle when the order to abandon ship came through."

She frowned. "Okay, but you don't look anything like your picture."

Poe didn't know what to say to that. The trooper with him said, "General Hux vouched for him."

"He did?" she asked.

"He did," the trooper confirmed. "Or at least, I guess he did."

Poe nodded. "It's an old picture."

"You'd have to be part shape-shifter for that to be your picture," she said.

Poe chewed his lips. He'd heard enough about the First Order's speciesist attitudes not to suggest that might be true. "You could contact the general. He's here."

"I'm not going to contact the general," she snapped irritably, like his suggestion was offensive.

The trooper sighed. "So what do you want me to do with him? Put him in lock-up until someone makes a decision about him?"

"That wouldn't help." She snorted. " _I'm_ the one who has to make a decision about him!"

"We can just," Poe offered, "get a new picture, right?"

She was silent, drumming one finger on the table while glaring at him. Poe tried to look innocent. The trooper finally said, "What's more likely, that he's not who General Hux says he is, or that someone filed the wrong picture for him?"

She grimaced and stopped drumming. "Fine. I'm going to schedule you for medical eval, grooming, basic equipment requisition, and then leave it up to Lt. Ree to make a duty assignment."

"That's it?" Poe blurted before he could stop himself. This place was insanely easy to infiltrate. His respect for the caper Finn and Rose had pulled off on the _Supremacy_ plummeted.

"Yes, that's it, unless you want to pull some punishment detail for being an idiot?"

"No! No sir."

She huffed. "You'll be integrated on a temporary basis until central org overrides it and transfers you to a different ship, which they probably will given all the evacuees."

"How many were there? How many survived?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Thousands. Most of them were picked up by the _Animosity_." He didn't recognize the name, but it followed in the antagonistic theme of older imperial ship designations. Most of the newer ships had more benign names. She added, "You're the first that's been picked up by this ship. They thought the _Animosity_ got all of you."

A short tube emerged from a machine to her right. She pulled it out and stuck it in a port in front of her. A new ID card flashed up to take the place of the old one. It featured Poe's current picture, hair and all, his holo apparently having been taken just seconds earlier. He was glad he'd shaved that morning, even if the tools had been barely up to the task. She waved at the picture. "Make sure to tell Lt. Ree you'll need to come back by tomorrow to have this revised with your duty assignment and a new picture – an _accurate_ picture, with your hair per regulations."

"Got it." Poe stared at a non-fake First Order ID with his face on it. He tried to shake off the weird feeling. "So the … Rebels. They just cleared out?"

"Rumor has it they were all destroyed during the attack, but you know how rumor is." She ejected the code cylinder and handed it to Poe. "Our ship's current assignment is to map the hyperspace anomaly and conduct an investigation on the wreck. I'm sure the captain will make an announcement when and if he thinks we need to know the details."

"I didn't actually catch this ship's name," Poe said.

"The _Outrider_."

"Got it." He followed the trooper who escorted him to medbay, where he reported the events of the previous few days mostly truthfully. To his relief, they didn't decide to check his DNA or other biometrics against their databases. They treated his whiplash and the inflamed, damaged tendons in his neck and shoulder. Once that was done, he was cleared for unrestricted duty.

His hair was cut by a droid which performed the dirty deed in seconds. He rubbed uncertainly at the velvety feel of his scalp, having been left with a half centimeter of hair. It was the shortest he'd ever had it. He wasn't a fan. His next stop was the quartermaster, where he was given basic issue equipment for security. In addition to the standard white armor and helmet, it included a fully-charged blaster rifle, binders, a comm link, and the sort of stuff he'd have killed to have when they'd first crashed. His code cylinder fit in a little bracket at the front right of his utility belt.

After that, they hit the commissary, where he was given what to him was dinner but they called it lunch. It was better than anything they'd eaten on the planet, but that was about all he could say about it. He wolfed it down.

Then he was taken to a barracks – a long room with a hundred or so beds, all but two of which were unoccupied. "Here," the stormtrooper who had been leading him around pointed at a bunk. "This one's unassigned. Just hang out here. Lt. Ree will be along eventually, probably at shift end in a few hours. If you don't see the lieutenant, just rack out and catch her on the morning shift. She'll give you an assignment then."

Poe took a seat on the bunk. "Okay. So I just get some shut-eye now?"

"Yep. Welcome back to the grind!" he said cheerfully, heading out the door and leaving Poe to his own devices.

For a crazy moment, Poe thought about what would happen if he just laid down, took a nap, and followed orders for the rest of his life. He could be a stormtrooper – just a cog in the machine, never looking past himself. It would be easy. Mind-numbing, but easy – never having to think, never having to figure things out.

That was only a moment. He had to do something while he waited until his escort had cleared out. Then Poe was up and moving, heading to the brig. He had a mission.

Finding the brig was easy enough. No one challenged him as he wandered the corridors, safely camouflaged in stormtrooper armor. He knew that was an illusion, as the heads-up display in his helmet flashed little callouts next to everyone he passed, helpfully providing their designations (and if he stared at the designation, it would expand to include rank and duty assignment). But he had a designation so no one needed to look at him twice.

Once he was at the brig, though. Well. He walked in. The place had a central monitoring desk with two short wings of cells. The ship itself wasn't very large. Just as it had one hangar, it had one brig, and not very many cells. Thus, few places where they might have taken Hux. Poe announced, "Lord Ren wants the prisoner." It had worked for Finn, after all.

The man and woman on duty looked at one another, then at him. The man was in armor. The woman was in a lieutenant's uniform. "What?" she said.

"The Supreme Leader, Lord Ren, wants General Armitage Hux to be brought to his flagship immediately. I just landed." Poe spoke like he expected cooperation.

She looked at her screens with misgiving. "I don't have a transfer request."

"The documentation should be on its way. Lord Ren does not like to be kept waiting."

She sighed. "The captain hasn't signed off on this. He hasn't even signed off yet on the general being here." She looked back at one of the rows of cells. Poe could just see the edge of Hux's forehead at the front of one of the cells. He'd come to the front. Poe wondered if he could recognize his voice even through the vocoder.

Apparently so, because Hux said, "He's never been one for proper protocol. There might not _be_ documentation. No one wants their name on this." After a pause, he asked, "Do you?" The woman frowned in concern.

Poe gave her another verbal nudge. "I was told to minimize turnaround time."

"You don't have a duty assignment," the man in armor said, having been peering at Poe a little too long for Poe's comfort.

"This _is_ my duty assignment. Lord Ren sent our group back from the _Animosity_ when General Hux didn't arrive with the other evacuees. You do have him, right?"

At that, finally, the woman stood. "Come see for yourself." She led him over to the cell. Hux gave him a displeased look. He was in a fresh uniform, although the rank markings weren't included. Poe supposed they had more sets of spare stormtrooper armor than they did of unused general's outfits. He was also cleaned up, though he'd managed to get through the process retaining the full length of his hair. Rank hath privileges.

"That's him," Poe said, and took the liberty of opening the cell. No one stopped him. "The shuttle is waiting, sir."

Hux sighed and walked out.

"I don't know how to log this," the woman said.

"Probably best you don't," Hux told her as he went down the steps out of the cell block unopposed. "Your captain will be able to give you the proper direction. But even then, he won't know how to have it recorded until I've seen the supreme leader and had my case adjudicated by him."

"Yes sir," she said, acquiescing. And with that, Hux walked out the brig with Poe immediately behind him. Hux's hands weren't even bound, although he was missing his weapon belt.

As they went down the hall, Poe came up even with him and said, "You guys have a crazy huge hole in your security."

"Not my problem anymore," Hux said. "You should have left me in there and escaped on your own. You didn't need to come for me. This just added a layer of danger for you. If they hadn't accepted your story, you would have been in a cell next to me."

"I trust my feelings here. And my feelings say you don't abandon someone who threw away their career for you. You could have ratted me out, blamed it all on me somehow, said it was a Resistance plot and I'd infiltrated your ship and sabotaged it or whatever. You didn't."

"Hm." Hux cocked his head thoughtfully. "I don't think they would have bought it."

Poe snorted. "I think the likelihood of you trying to sell it is zilch. So we're getting out of here. There's the hangar." He gestured ahead of himself with the barrel of the blaster. "What do you think? One of those shuttles?"

"Don't use your blaster that way."

"What?"

"Don't point it- never mind." Hux surveyed the hangar, then said, "No, not one of the shuttles. That craft in the corner. It's a reconnaissance vessel. It will have a stealth package."

"Fantastic," Poe said, and the two of them headed to the slender ship Poe had previously mistakenly pegged as a civilian craft. "I've never seen one of these before."

"Because it has a stealth package," Hux repeated.

Poe chuckled. "Yeah, probably." There was no one working on it and all lines were disconnected. (Poe checked this time. No more mistakes like during the escape with Finn.) They went up the ramp without incident. Poe warmed up the engines, glad the craft was off by itself so as to minimize the chance of anyone noticing them.

They were just about ready to go when the comm blinked to life. "Recon ship _Valkyrie_ , this is Lt-Cmdr. Frakes. What is your assignment? You are not cleared for take-off."

"Let me handle this," Hux said as Poe drifted the ship out of the hangar anyway. For now, he was keeping to normal speeds. There were two keys to their escape, both of which boiled down to time – he needed to fly along a straight vector long enough for the navicomputer to calculate their hyperspace jump, and he needed to not get snagged by a tractor beam in the meantime.

Hux spoke with a flatter, less imperial accent than normal for him. "Sir, we've finished making the modifications to the nose maneuvering jets that Chief Engineer Dodd sent over. We're just going to take it out for a quick test flight. We'll be right back."

"What? Who is Chief Engineer Dodd?"

"He's on the _Absolution_ , sir."

"What? Why-? You are _not_ cleared for flight!"

"It's not an actual flight, sir. We didn't want to do the performance test in the hangar. This is safer." The man on the other end of the comm started to say something, but Hux spoke over him in a calm drawl, "We've been working with Dodd on a project to optimize performance. You should check with him. He told us to do this and all the calculations show-"

"Turn that ship around right now or I'll _make_ you turn it around! What's your designation?"

"Prime D-646." Hux muted the comm and looked to Poe. "How much longer?" In the background, the officer was sputtering something about 'primes always think they know more than the rest of us!'

"Seconds," Poe told him. Lights blinked green on his console. The little spy ship was faster than most in picking a course. "There!" Poe pulled the lever, not waiting to see how the conversation turned out. Streaks of light streamed past the cockpit, replaced by peaceful swirls of space beyond space. For a long moment, they both stared at out it. "We made it," Poe said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poe using his blaster incorrectly is a reference to First Order body language explained better in other fics of mine (same for designations, ship names, and primes). It doesn't matter much here, except that Poe isn't conducting himself as a regular stormtrooper and if an observer had a reason to pay close attention to him, they'd notice it. Fortunately, none have a good reason to watch him closely.


	10. Escapism

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They make good their escape. And they make their escape good.

"Made it to where?" Hux asked. "Where are we headed?"

"Um, ha, I didn't look. I just told it to go wherever it had last jumped to." Poe checked the coordinates. "Huh. The Hosnian system."

Hux shrugged. "That makes sense."

Poe got out of his seat and opened the floor panel behind it. "What are you guys doing in the Hosnian system? Or what's left of it?"

Hux swiveled to watch him. "Monitoring it and the traffic moving through it. The supreme leader seemed to think it important." He sounded like he had a low opinion of Kylo Ren's priorities.

Poe went about the business of disabling the ship's tracker. "What was he looking for?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure _he_ knew. Something Force-related, I'm sure. He rambled nonsensically about wounds and injuries to the life force of the galaxy."

Poe paused in his work. "You mean … to the Living Force?"

Hux hesitated as well, thinking. "Yes, I believe that's the phrase he used. What does it mean?"

"Not sure. And I'm not sure we have anyone left alive in the galaxy who _would_ know. Aside from Kylo Ren and Luke's last student."

"Rey? The scavenger?" Poe nodded and kept working. Hux continued, "Well, whatever he's doing, he's not keeping the rest of the High Command apprised, which as I said before, is not a departure from how Snoke managed things. The lack of adherence to proper protocol also spawns exactly what you did – breaking me out without documentation. His own fault, really," Hux mused. He leaned over, looking down at where Poe had pulled the black box up to the deck while he disconnected cables to isolate it. "Is that it?"

"Yep. Just about done. Once I jettison this, we'll be free to make other jumps without being tracked."

"Jumps to the Resistance?"

"Not unless that's where you want to go." He paused to look up and study Hux.

"I have not changed my mind. I will not take up arms against my … my people." Hux swallowed and looked away when Poe glanced up at him. "Even if they're not 'my' people anymore."

"You don't have to fight."

"Just by being there, associated, I would be rendering aid and giving comfort to the people who _were_ fighting. The Republic granted no exceptions to the kitchen workers at the Academy when they bombed Arkanis. The Resistance makes no effort to limit their attacks on our star destroyers, which carry thousands of non-combatants. It is no defense. I will not do it."

Poe finished with the tracking device/black box and closed the floor panel. "I don't know how many First Order non-combatants I've killed."

"Probably only a few thousand support staff and their families on Starkiller Base. The _Fulminatrix_ had a skeleton crew of mostly subadults, but they were combat-qualified. I wouldn't count them, and you were just portion of that attack, anyway."

"Only a few thousand," he said hollowly.

"My point is that I know _you_ might see a distinction between combatants and the people who support and enable them, but I don't. I won't support attacks against the Order." The silence stretched on as Poe mentally tallied his combat kills (already very high) and added 'a few thousand' for good measure. Hux swallowed hard again after the silence had stretched on too long. "You should have left me."

"They would have killed you. Right? You said they would."

Hux shook his head and shrugged his way through an eyeroll. "It's immaterial."

"It's not to me." Poe gave him a long look. "Gotta question for you – is there anyone who has killed as many people in the First Order as I have?"

"Who is still alive?" Hux asked. Poe nodded. "Not that I know of."

He chewed his lips briefly, thinking about what Hux had said to him in the interrogation room. "That's why you wanted me dead – not even bothering to question me."

"That was why I wanted you dead. But that time has passed."

"And you're … willing to let me go back to the Resistance?"

Hux looked ill. "Get rid of that." He gestured at the black box.

Poe went aft to find a port he could use to toss it into the wilds of hyperspace. It crossed his mind to wonder if the _Finalizer_ had run into something someone had once left behind them. Space was so huge. The odds were astronomical, right? He disposed of it and returned to the cockpit.

When he returned, Hux said, "I will part ways with you if you intend to return to the Resistance."

"But you'd let me do it? You'd let me go?"

"What you do outside my association is not my business."

"But-"

"Do you really wish to press this point with me?" Hux said angrily. There was hurt behind it. "Do you intend to manufacture a series of imaginary circumstances where I would feel obligated to take your life?"

"No."

"Good! Because I have left the only life I've ever known. My entire existence was the First Order, the military, from my earliest remaining memories. I did not leave it … explicitly … for you, but if I had crashed alone and been recovered, I would have gone to my fate in the Order without attempting to leave it. And I would have sent that transmission to them to start with, were I able to do the repairs and survive everything else. If you really want to serve the Resistance, you should have left me on that ship to be executed."

Poe cradled Hux's face. "I didn't leave you. I'm not leaving you now. I'm not going to the Resistance." Poe kissed him.

Hux kissed him back. When they parted, he asked, "What am I, if I'm not a general? If I change my name and I'm no longer even a Hux?"

"The man stranded on that planet with me wasn't either of those things. He was just you."

"The Resistance is where your friends are. Your career. Your life. It is wrong for me to interfere with that."

"Don't worry about it. I'll send them a comm at some point," Poe said. "They deserve that much, especially if anyone who tried to mount that rescue operation survived. But I'm going with you."

Hux laid a hand over his. "What do we do next, then?"

"Did you get dinner?"

"Yes."

Poe nodded. "Then, if you've eaten, I think what comes next is we get some sleep. We'll be in hyperspace for hours." He waved at the swirling lights out the window. "Does this thing have beds?" He turned and looked down the narrow cabin. He hadn't seen any as he'd gone back earlier.

"I think so." Hux rose and went to the back. Poe followed him. "Here," Hux said, pulling down a folding bunk. "Two of them."

They were each wide enough for one person. Poe picked at the thin pad that passed as a mattress. It was removable. So he removed it. He tossed it on the floor and reached for the other one.

"What are you doing?" Hux asked.

"Do you want to sleep together or apart?"

Hux helped him throw the second one on the floor next to the first. Poe smirked at that. Hux asked, "Are you going to sleep in the armor?"

"Nah." Poe stepped to the side and removed all the plates and pieces, putting them on the bunk. It left him in the body sleeve. Hux took off his top layer: tunic, trousers, boots, and belt. Poe said, "They took your knife?"

"Yes," Hux said in regret. "And the pistol. It was customized. I liked it. I'd practiced a lot with it. As I had also practiced with the knife."

Poe shrugged. "I've gone through a lot of ships and droids through the war. I know it sucks to lose stuff."

"I've lost _everything_."

Poe moved closer to him. "You have your freedom now."

"That thing the Rebellion wanted so badly from the Empire?"

Poe nodded. "It's worth a lot."

"To some. I must say I don't know what to do with it."

"I can think of a few things." Poe kissed him softly, and Hux returned it just as softly. Poe broke the kiss, cupping Hux's face in his hands. "Can you find it in yourself to trust me even more?"

"With what?"

"Your heart."

"I am a sadistic bastard. You said so yourself. Heartlessness must be a component of that."

With his thumb, Poe stroked the soft skin high on Hux's cheek, under his eye. "The other night … when you stroked my back … you enjoyed making me feel good. That's not the act of a sadist. You were happy I liked it. Remember that?"

Hux's gaze drifted down. He didn't answer, but he didn't deny it either.

Poe swallowed and stroked with both thumbs. "I want more of that. Please." He drew out the last word. Hux had liked it before. He liked it now.

Hux kissed him. Hux's hands traveled down Poe's front and lifted the hem of his shirt. "Take this off." He stepped back, leaving Poe to disrobe. "And I will try to please you."

Poe smiled and complied, tossing the garment onto the pieces of armor. He left his bottoms and socks on. He sat on one of the mattresses, sitting loosely cross-legged. Hux stood behind him, then knelt. His hands touched lightly over Poe's skin, making it prickle in a frisson. "Mmm," Poe hummed.

"Is this right? What … what should I do?"

"More of this. I like it." Poe turned his head to see him as Hux skated his hand across the width of Poe's shoulders. Poe asked, "What do you like? What makes you hot?" Hux made an inarticulate noise and was silent. When his eyes shifted to Poe's skin and it seemed he wouldn't answer, Poe said, "You asked me about my hate. Where does your love come from?"

"Love?" Hux sounded disbelieving.

"What do you have a passion for? I'm serious."

"It's amazing you think I have the capacity for such things. And humbling."

"You're human. I know you do. Tell me."

Hux again looked uncertain, but he found an answer. "Victory? Success, winning. Order. Stability." A pause, and a warier tone of voice: "Safety."

Poe made a single nod. "Those all fit together." And were no good for telling sexual preferences aside from 'don't make me feel like a loser' and 'help me feel safe and taken care of'. So … no humiliation or indifference. That was easy. "Tell me more about victory. Is it the dominance? The power?"

Hux was quiet, petting up and down Poe's spine. It felt nice. He had a sensitive touch. "Not … exactly. The power has never been mine. Or rarely. It's more about … how winning lets me know I was doing what I was supposed to. Maybe the hope that others might see it as an example to follow. To be recognized for that."

"Do you _want_ the power?"

"I want the recognition."

 _Praise,_ Poe almost blurted out, but didn't. Instead, he tried something. "This feels really good. You're doing a good job right now. I like the way you touch me."

Hux was not slow – he immediately caught what Poe was doing – but he laughed instead of being offended. He leaned forward and kissed Poe on the side of the neck. "Is that all I need do?" he purred. "Tell you what I want and you'll give it to me?"

Now Poe laughed, though he could hear how unlikely Hux thought it was. "Yes, that's exactly how it works. Remember I said you have to tell me what to do? Just tell me. I like making people happy. I want to make _you_ happy."

Hux gave him a doubting look and said in a droll tone, "Tell me I'm wonderful."

"You are."

Hux hesitated. Not so droll, he said, "And handsome."

"I've never seen more."

Hux looked like he might be starting to believe him. "Tell me you like me."

" _Oh_ , I like you."

"Tell me you'll never leave me."

Poe blinked and hesitated. He turned halfway so he wasn't seeing Hux out of the corner of his eye. Hux's eyes narrowed but he was otherwise still at this sudden, serious turn. Poe said, "It's early for that." He paused, but Hux didn't explode into a rage or anything worse. Poe added in his sincerest tone, "I can promise I will do everything I can to make this work between us. I will be open and honest with you at all times. And if things don't work out, I will be as graceful and amicable as possible in parting ways or staying friends, whichever you decide."

"A less realistic answer, I would not have believed." Hux let his eyes shut for a long moment. Poe touched his knee. Hux opened his eyes and moved forward, hugging him and pushing him over until Poe was flat on his back and Hux atop him, kissing with rising energy. Poe ran his hands up Hux's sides, pulling his undershirt along with them. They broke from the kiss long enough for Hux to take it off, then they resumed.

"Does that mean the other things you said are true?" Hux asked as Poe worked his way down the man's jaw. Although it hadn't exactly been stubbly when they'd left the planet, it was baby-smooth now. In addition to the new uniform and cleaning up, he'd shaved.

"Uh-huh," Poe told him between nips and kisses.

"You're silly." Hux was holding Poe to him, flexing against him, stretching to give Poe as much as access as he could to his neck and upper chest.

"Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?" He ran a hand over Hux's ass and down to his thigh to pull the leg higher on him.

"I called you insane when I saw your maneuvers over D'Qar. But I guess you'd have to be to do this with me."

Poe caressed Hux's thigh where he still had a grip on it. "Big risks get big rewards. You might like to play it safe, but I'm fine with danger. You're the most dangerous man I've ever been with." He bit Hux on the upper pectoral, enjoying the resulting gasp and arch.

Hux tightened his fist in Poe's hair. Poe let go of him with his teeth. Hux said, "I'll make sure not to introduce you to my friends. Though that shouldn't be a problem given our circumstances."

"Don't worry. I think I've got all I can handle here." He took his hand from Hux's thigh and ran it down Hux's belly to his groin. Hux gasped again as Poe gripped the bulge there and massaged it. Hux's hips jerked with the motions. He made a faint keen in Poe's ear. Poe asked, "Want more?"

"Yes." It was a whisper.

Poe rolled them both over, putting himself on top, more or less. His leg was still between Hux's. His hand slipped inside the man's underwear. Hux's eyes were big. Poe leaned down, testing the waters. Hux pulled him closer, partly onto him, and kissed him passionately. Poe began to pump at him. Hux shuddered at each stroke, acting like he didn't know what to do with himself. He broke from the kiss and bit Poe on the shoulder, kissed him there, then bit him again.

He thrust into Poe's hand. His free leg twined around Poe's and powered his thrusts. He gasped and shook and came apart in Poe's arms, spilling over his hand and onto his own belly. The gasps turned irregular like he was struggling for breath, then he quieted. A few moments later, he started breathing and sniffled furtively.

Poe wiped his hand off on the leg of his own bottoms and hugged Hux tightly. "You're safe. You're safe, buddy. You _are_ wonderful and handsome and I like you. I love seeing you like this. You're being so good. I think this is all new for you, right?" Hux nodded brokenly. "You're doing great," Poe reassured. "That was incredible."

Hux's belly contracted in a few soundless laughs. "I did nothing."

"You let go," Poe said. "That's not nothing. You let it happen. You joined in. You were entirely present."

"How could anyone be other?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised. But as long as we're together, you're not going to find out." Poe kissed him on the forehead. Hux hugged him awkwardly, breathing easier now. Poe whispered, "I'm glad you're with me. I'm glad we're together like this."

"I'm glad you didn't leave me there," Hux said back in a quiet, low tone.

Poe nuzzled him, working his way to Hux's mouth and kissing it open. He licked inside, teasing at lips and tongue. Hux's breath caught and his grip tightened on Poe's shoulder and side. Poe pushed his hips forward, looking for a little friction against Hux's side and trying to mentally work out what he should do, if he should stop kissing and talk or keep going.

Hux got the message without all that. The hand on Poe's side slid to his hip and then under the waistband of the body sleeve. Poe reached down with his free hand to shove the band down. He reached further and freed himself, balls and all. Hux's hand was on him before he was done. Hux broke from the kiss, looking down at what he was doing – pumping unevenly at first, then feeling around over him in a way that was ticklish.

Poe chuckled but didn't pull away. "Never had a dick in your hand?"

"Only my own. It's awkward from this angle," Hux said. "It's backwards." He shot Poe an uncertain look.

"It doesn't have to be. Roll toward me." Poe settled on his side. "Like we're sleeping."

"Ah." Hux spooned behind him, giving him a reach-around. "Was this what you had in mind on the planet?"

"No. I was freezing to death the first time. Cold the second. And just happy to be with you the other times. But you can give me a new reason to like it."

Hux had started slow, but he sped up now. The rush of sensations stole anything else Poe might have intended to say. Hux kissed his shoulder. Poe put his head back against Hux's shoulder in turn, letting it loll. Hux nibbled at his ear, his hot breaths amplified by the proximity.

Poe moaned and let his hips shift a little. He reached back under Hux's arm and splayed his fingers over Hux's hip, holding them together as Hux picked up the pace further. Poe moaned again. His toes curled and his knees bent. His breath turned to a shuddering gasp as he came.

Hux gently bit his way down the side of Poe's neck, ending with a kiss right where he'd started. Poe rolled his head to the side. "Thank you. You're so much more than I thought you were."

"As are you." Hux pulled over his shirt, but didn't put it on. It ended up draped sideways over both of them. The reason for this became clear a few moments later when Hux's breathing deepened and his hand slid limply out of Poe's hair. Poe sighed and drowsed with him. It would be hours before they dropped out of hyperspace.

A beeping alerted him that the hours had passed. Poe grunted and shifted. He felt stiff. Hux vanished behind him, leaving Poe to flop over on his back and look up at the startled man. "You okay?" Hux looked down at him and nodded silently. He was rubbing his wrist. Poe sat up and handed him the shirt. "Wanting your knife?"

Hux nodded again and put the shirt on as Poe got to his feet. A crusty patch on his pant leg detached from his thigh. Poe scratched at it. "You always wake up like that?"

"It's dangerous not to."

Poe cocked his head. Life on a star destroyer wasn't … shouldn't be … that hard. Then again, he remembered the lash marks. "It's just the warning that we'll be dropping out of hyperspace in a few minutes." He pulled on his shirt and headed to the pilot's seat. "Everything looks normal," he said after reviewing the controls.

"I'll set the stealth package to activate as soon as we exit." Hux slid into the other seat, working the controls on that side. "It takes too much power to run concurrently with the hyperdrive."

They exited on schedule. Poe leaned forward in the cockpit, silently looking at the structure they found around themselves. It looked like the framework of a cage, but big enough to hold one of the First Order's biggest ships. Not the _Supremacy_ , but definitely one of those _Resurgent_ -class destroyers. There were gaps between the interrupted struts that made flying out of it an easy task, especially in a ship their size. For now, Poe let the little ship drift. "What is that?" he finally asked.

"There's a lot of debris in the area. That's a repulsor field to ensure a clean landing zone."

"Ah." He checked the scanners. "There's a ship over there." Poe pointed out to the right. "You can just see it."

Hux nodded. "As I said, we've been monitoring the area. That's one of the imperial ones. Probably the _Allegiance_. It should be far enough away that we can jump without interference."

"They can't see us?"

"Not now. They might have seen the pseudomotion flicker when we arrived, before the stealth system could come fully online. I'm not sure if their scanners are advanced enough to pick us up now that we're cloaked. It wasn't our policy to upgrade the older ships unless they were damaged. The _Allegiant_ sub-fleet was in good shape when it joined up with the Order."

Poe looked at the scanners again. "Oh, they're moving toward us. I gotta get us out of here. Where do you want to go?" Hux started to speak, then stopped. Poe asked, "What? We don't have a lot of time."

"I won't insult you by suggesting again that you return to the Resistance."

Poe chuckled at him. "Good. But is there anywhere in the galaxy you've ever wanted to see more of?"

"Arkanis."

Poe blinked at him, remembering it mentioned as Hux's birthplace in the files. But he hadn't been there since he was what? Five? Six? Maybe he had family there, family of the not-Brendol-Hux variety. Poe looked at the navicomputer. "Okay. I can work with that. It'll take multiple jumps, but this thing was fully fueled when we stole it." He loaded the coordinates.


	11. Epilogue

_Months later …_

"I have the channel up," Poe called as the holographic scene stabilized in the living room of their tiny apartment on Arkanis.

"Is it playing already?" Hux sounded concerned and irritated as he puttered around the kitchenette, tending to the hissing tea kettle.

"No, I have it on pause until you're in here, babe. I know you want to see this as much as I do. Looks like we missed all the lead-up. They're just starting the main ceremony." Or maybe they'd already started. Poe didn't know what a royal Naboo wedding entailed, much less what changes might have been made to it by those involved, neither of whom had been born or raised there, and the nobility of one of which was still in debate. Maybe he'd catch all that when they played back the parts they'd missed. (Though Poe wouldn't mind skipping the debate, Hux would want to see it. He was really into that sort of stuff.)

He leaned forward on the projection table that doubled as a workspace and eating area, studying the tiny figures in elaborate outfits. He tinkered with the settings to sharpen the image. Hux came in and placed a cup of steaming amber tea in front of him. He settled in next to Poe with his own cup.

"See anyone you recognize?" Hux asked.

"Yeah. That's Finn." Poe pointed him out. "And next to him, that shorter woman was in the Resistance. Penny? No. Wait, Paige! Paige Tico. No, Paige died. That's Paige's sister. Now what was her sister's name? She went to Canto Bight …" It had been months since he'd had contact with them and so many things had happened in the meantime. Among others, this wedding had been as much a surprise to Poe as it had been to the rest of the galaxy. He supposed there had been months of planning and talks, but he hadn't been in the loop for it.

Hux asked, "Was she the one who infiltrated the _Supremacy_ with him?"

"Yeah! That was her." Poe turned to him. "What was her name?"

"I don't recall. I'm sure it was mentioned to me, but that was a very busy day."

"Wait, I got it! Rose. That was it." He turned back to the scene, gesturing at her.

"Hm," Hux hummed approvingly as he sipped his tea. "Sounds familiar."

Poe nodded. "There's Chewbacca and um, Wragnawl? I might not be pronouncing that right. He's the delegate from Kashyyyk. It's hard to make out the rest. The image resolution isn't great and most of them are in … costumes." The Wookiees were an exception, which had made them easy to pick out. "Do you recognize anyone?"

"There's General Organa, of course," Hux said, indicating which one he meant. Poe nodded. He'd recognized her right away and hadn't thought to mention it. "And then some of the High Command. I could make educated guesses about the others, but as you say, the resolution is poor. Is there a guest list in the data stream?"

Poe checked the associated data channels. "Yeah."

He started to pull it up, but Hux waved it away. "Let's just watch it. We can read that later. This might be the most important political event in our lifetime. I thought it would be a battle, not a wedding."

Poe switched back to the holo-feed and hit play, leaning back with one arm around his husband and the other balancing the cup of tea. He blew on it and sipped. Hux had sweetened it to the way Poe liked it. He took a moment to say, "Thank you. Perfect as always." Hux preened. Poe's other hand stroked the man's back in appreciation and fondness.

They watched the drama and pageantry unfold as Supreme Leader Kylo Ren of the First Order was wedded to Rey, the 'Last Jedi' (or so she was called in the hushed narration). After the vows had been exchanged and the initial round of celebration was drowning everything else out, Hux turned to Poe. "Did you know her?"

He shrugged. "A little. We were on the _Millennium Falcon_ together on the way off Crait. She was quiet. Kept to herself. I tried to talk to her about how we'd both been through Kylo Ren's torture, but she didn't have much to say. I'm beginning to think her experience might have been a bit different than mine." He said that last sourly. He still had nightmares. They both did, about different things, but they were there for one another and that made it easier to bear.

Hux sipped his tea with a thoughtful expression.

"Do you know anything about that?" Poe asked.

"I know he was smitten by her before he ever met her. He throttled one of my officers just for mentioning her."

"He killed a guy for mentioning her? Jealous?" Or psychotic.

"No, he- The officer survived. And the officer had not met her, so I don't think it was jealousy. I think it was some sort of desperation instead. Ren risked everything to find her. I think he was looking for someone to be his partner in the Force."

Poe grunted. "Doesn't seem like a good enough reason to choke someone."

"No, but this is." Hux gestured at the scene. People were parading out of the wedding grounds, moving to different reception areas and other entertainments. Various close-ups and camera angles flashed by. "This is all political – the end of the Resistance, end of the war, beginning of a new government, re-establishment of the senate, and so on. If I had any wish for them, it is that I hope they come to love one another. It's not impossible, no matter how opposite they might seem."

Poe stroked Hux's back again, admiring the man's profile and the golden feathering of his hair. "No. It's not impossible."


End file.
